GIFT   OF 


WOMEN  WAGE-EARNERS 

THEIR   PAST,  THEIR  PRESENT, 
AND    THEIR  FUTURE. 


BY 


HELEN   CAMPBELL, 

AUTHOR  OF  "PRISONERS  OF  POVERTY,"  "PRISONERS  OF 

POVERTY  ABROAD,"  "THE  PROBLEM  OF  THE  POOR," 

"  MRS.  HERNDON'S  INCOME,"  ETC. 


an  CntroUuctton 


BY  RICHARD   T.  ELY,  PH.D.,  LL.D. 

Professor  of  Political  Economy  and  Director  of  the  School  of  Economics^ 
University  of  Wisconsin,  Madison,   Wis. 


BOSTON: 

ROBERTS  BROTHERS. 
1893. 


D  c*z^} 

Copyright,  1893, 
BY  HELEN  CAMPBELL. 


SJntbersttg 
JOHN  WILSON  AND  SON,  CAMBRIDGE,  U.S.A. 


KCONUM1CS 


A    BOOK    FOR 


FRIEND,   HELPER,   AND    COMRADE, 


41B542 


INTRODUCTION 

BY  RICHARD  T.  ELY, 

DIRECTOR  OF  SCHOOL  OF  ECONOMICS,  POLITICAL  SCIENCE, 
.     AND  HISTORY,  UNIVERSITY  OF  WISCONSIN,  MADISON. 


importance  of  the  subject  with  which 
A  the  present  work  deals  cannot  well  be 
over-estimated.  Our  age  may  properly  be  called 
the  Era  of  Woman,  because  everything  which 
affects  her  receives  consideration  quite  unknown 
in  past  centuries.  This  is  well.  The  motive 
is  twofold  :  First,  woman  is  valued  as  never 
before  ;  and,  second,  it  is  perceived  that  the 
welfare  of  the  other  half  of  the  human  race 
depends  more  largely  upon  the  position  enjoyed 
by  woman  than  was  previously  understood. 

The  earlier  agitation  for  an  enlarged  sphere 
and  greater  rights  for  woman  was  to  a  consider- 
able extent  merely  negative.  The  aim  was  to 
remove  barriers  and  to  open  the  way.  It  is 
characteristic  of  the  earlier  days  of  agitation 
for  the  removal  of  wrongs  affecting  any  class, 


vi  Introduction. 

that  the  questions  involved  appear  to  be  simple, 
and  easily  repealed  formulas  ample  to  secure 
desired  rights.  Further  agitation,  however,  and 
more  mature  reflection  always  show  that  what 
looks  like  a  simple  social  problem  is  a  complex 
one. 

"  If  women's  wages  are  small,  open  new 
careers  to  them."  As  simple  as  this  did  the 
problem  of  women's  wages  once  appear ;  but 
when  new  avenues  of  employment  were  ren- 
dered accessible  to  women,  it  was  found,  in 
some  instances,  that  the  wages  of  men  were 
lowered.  A  consequence  which  can  be  seen  in 
different  industrial  centres  is  that  a  man  and  a 
wife  working  together  secure  no  greater  wages 
than  the  man  alone  in  industries  in  which 
women  are  not  employed.  Now,  if  the  result  of 
opening  new  employments  to  women  is  to  force 
all  members  of  the  family  to  work  for  the  wages 
which  the  head  of  the  family  alone  once 
received,  it  is  manifest  that  we  have  a  compli- 
cated problem. 

Another  result  of  wage-earning  by  women, 
which  has  been  observed  here  and  there,  is  the 
scattering  of  the  members  of  the  family  and  the 
break-down  of  the  home.  A  recent  and  careful 


Introduction.  vii 

observer  among  the  chief  industrial  centres  of 
Saxony,  Germany,  has  told  us  that  factory 
work  has  there  resulted  in  the  dissolution  of  the 
family,  and  that  family  life,  as  we  understand  it, 
scarcely  exists.  We  have  demoralization  seen 
in  the  young  ;  and  in  addition  to  that,  we  discover 
that  the  employment  of  married  women  outside 
the  home  results  in  the  impaired  health  and 
strength  of  future  generations. 

The  conclusion  by  no  means  follows  that  we 
should  go  backward,  and  try  to  restrict  the 
industrial  sphere  of  woman.  It  has  been  well 
said  that  revolutions  do  not  go  backward;  we 
have  to  go  farther  forward  to  keep  the  advan- 
tages which  have  been  attained,  and  at  the  same 
time  lessen  the  evils  which  the  new  order  has 
brought  with  it. 

Further  action  is  required ;  but  in  order  that 
this  action  may  bring  desired  results,  it  must  be 
based  upon  ample  knowledge.  The  natural 
impulse  when  we  see  an  evil  is  to  adopt  direct 
methods  looking  to  an  immediate  cure ;  but  such 
direct  methods  which  at  once  suggest  themselves 
generally  fail  to  bring  relief.  The  effective 
remedies  are  those  which  use  indirect  methods 
based  upon  scientific  knowledge.  If  a  sympa- 


viii  Introduction. 

thetic  man  takes  to  heart  physical  suffering, 
which  he  can  see  on  every  side,  he  must  feel 
inclined  to  relieve  the  distressed  at  once,  and  feel 
impatient  if  he  is  hindered  in  his  benevolent 
impulses ;  yet  we  know  that  he  will  accomplish 
far  more  in  the  end,  if  he  patiently  devotes  years 
to  study  in  medical  schools  and  practice  in  hos- 
pitals before  he  attempts  to  give  relief  to  the 
diseased.  We  need  study  quite  as  much  to  cure 
the  ills  of  the  social  body ;  and  the  present  work 
gives  us  a  welcome  addition  to  the  positive 
information  upon  which  wise  action  must 
depend. 

Mrs.  Campbell  has  been  favorably  known  for 
years  on  account  of  her  valuable  contributions 
to  the  literature  of  social  science,  and  it  gives 
the  present  writer  great  pleasure  to  have  the 
privilege  of  introducing  this  book  to  the  public 
with  a  word  of  commendation. 


MADISON,  WISCONSIN, 
August  29,  1893. 


AUTHOR'S    PREFACE. 


THE  pages  which  follow  were  prepared  ori 
ginally  as  a  prize  monograph  for  the  Ameri 
can  Economic  Association,  receiving  an  award 
from  it  in  1891.  The  restriction  of  the  subject  to  a 
fixed  number  of  words  hampered  the  treatment, 
and  it  was  thought  best  to  enlarge  many  points 
which  in  the  allotted  space  could  have  hardly 
more  than  mention.  Acting  on  this  wish,  the 
monograph  has  been  nearly  doubled  in  size,  but 
still  must  be  counted  only  an  imperfect  sum- 
mary, since  facts  in  these  lines  are  in  most  cases 
very  nearly  unobtainable,  and,  aside  from  the 
few  reports  of  Labor  Bureaus,  there  are  as  yet 
almost  no  sources  of  full  information.  But  as 
there  is  no  existing  manual  of  reference  on  this 
topic,  the  student  of  social  questions  will  accept 
this  attempt  to  meet  the  need,  till  more  facts 
enable  a  fuller  and  better  presentation  of  the 
difficult  subject. 

NEW  YORK,  August,  1893. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

INTRODUCTION 7 

CHAPTER 

I.    A  LOOK  BACKWARD 25 

II.  EMPLOYMENTS  FOR  WOMEN  DURING  THE 
COLONIAL  PERIOD,  AND  THE  DEVELOP- 
MENT OF  THE  FACTORY 57 

[II.  ^EARLY  ASPECTS  OF  FACTORY  LABOR  FOR 

WOMEN 77 

I V.^  RISE  AND   GROWTH  OF  TRADES  UP  TO 

THE  PRESENT  TIME 95 

LABOR    BUREAUS  AND   THEIR  WORK  IN 

RELATION    TO    WOMEN Ill 

'I.    PRESENT   WAGE-RATES  IN  THE  UNITED 

STATES 126 

VII.    GENERAL      CONDITIONS     FOR     ENGLISH 

WORKERS 142 

VIII.    GENERAL  CONDITIONS  FOR  CONTINENTAL 

WORKERS 161 

~  IX.  GENERAL  CONDITIONS  AMONG  WAGE- 
EARNING  WOMEN  IN  THE  UNITED 
STATES  188 


xii  Contents. 

CHAPTER  PAGE 

X.    GENERAL  CONDITIONS  IN  THE  WESTERN 

STATES 199 

"  XI.    SPECIFIC    EVILS  AND   ABUSES   IN    FAC- 
TORY LIFE  AND  IN  GENERAL  TRADES    .    212 
XII.    REMEDIES  AND  SUGGESTIONS      ....    249 

APPENDIX. 

FACTORY  INSPECTION  LAW 275 

AUTHORITIES  CONSULTED  IN  PREPARING  THIS 

BOOK 291 

BIBLIOGRAPHY  OF  WOMAN'S  LABOR  AND  OF  THE 

WOMAN  QUESTION 294 


INDEX 305 


•      •>-,!„    •"•.:.'.     : 


WOMEN  WAGE-EARNERS; 

THEIR   PAST,   THEIR   PRESENT,   AND 
THEIR   FUTURE. 


INTRODUCTION. 


THE  one  great  question  that  to-day  agitates 
the  whole  civilized  world  is  an  economic 
question.  It  is  not  the  production  but  the  dis- 
tribution of  wealth ;  in  other  words,  the  wages 
question,  —  the  wages  of  men  and  women.  No- 
where do  we  find  any  suggestion  that  capital 
and  the  landlord  do  not  receive  a  quid  pro  quo. 
Instead,  the  whole  labor  world  cries  out  that 
the  capitalist  and  the  landlord  are  enslaving 
the  rest  of  the  world,  and  absorbing  the  lion's 
share  of  the  joint  production. 

So  long  as  it  is  a  question  of  production  only, 
tt^ere  is  perfect  harmony.  Both  unite  in  agree- 
ing that  to  produce  as  much  as  possible  is  for 
the  interest  of  each.  The  conflict  begins  with 


8  Women   Wage-Earners. 

distribution.  It  is  no  longer  a  war  of  one  nation 
with  another;  it  is  internecine  war,  destroying 
the  foundations  of  our  own  defences,  and  making 
enemies  of  those  who  should  be  brothers. 

It  is  impossible  for  even  the  most  dispassion- 
ate or  indifferent  observer  to  blink  these  facts. 
Proclaim  as  we  may  that  there  is  no  antagonism 
between  capital  and  labor,  —  that  their  interests 
are  one,  and  that  conditions  and  opportunities 
for  the  worker  are  always  better  and  better,  — 
practical  thinkers  and  workers  deny  this  con- 
clusion. Wealth  has  enormously  increased,  in 
a  far  greater  ratio  than  population.  Does  the 
laborer  receive  his  due  proportion  of  this  in- 
crease? One  must  unhesitatingly  answer  no. 
In  a  country  whose  life  began  in  the  search  for 
freedom,  and  which  professes  to  give  equal 
opportunity  to  all,  more  startling  inequality 
exists  than  in  any  other  in  the  civilized  world. 
One  of  our  ablest  lawyers,  Thomas  G.  Shearman, 
has  lately  written :  — 

"  Our  old  equality  is  gone.  So  far  from  being  the 
most  equal  people  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  as  we 
once  boasted  that  we  were,  ours  is  now  the  most 
unequal  of  civilized  nations.  We  talk  about  the 
wealth  of  the  British  aristocracy  and  about  the  pov- 


jrty  of  the  British  poor.  There  is  not  m  tfi£  Wole 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  so  striking  a  contrast,  so 
wide  a  chasm,  between  rich  and  poor  as  in  these 
United  States  of  America.  There  is  no  man  in  the 
whole  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  who  is  as  wealthy 
as  one  of  some  half-a-dozen  men  who  could  be 
named  in  this  country;  and  there  are  few  there 
who  could  be  poorer  than  some  that  could  be  found 
in  this  country.  It  is  true  that  there  is  a  larger 
number  of  the  extremely  poor  in  Great  Britain  and 
Ireland  than  there  is  in  this  country,  but  it  is  not 
true  that  there  is  any  more  desperate  poverty  in  any 
civilized  country  than  ours ;  and  it  is  unquestionably 
not  true  that  there  is  any  greater  mass  of  riches  con- 
centrated in  a  few  hands  in  any  country  than  this." 

This  for  America.  For  England  the  tale  is 
much  the  same.  "  The  Bitter  Cry  of  Outcast 
London,"  with  its  passionate  demand  that  the 
rich  open  their  eyes  to  see  the  misery,  degra- 
dation, and  want  seething  in  London  slums,  is 
but  another  putting  of  the  words  of  the  serious, 
scientific  observer  of  facts,  Huxley  himself,  who 
has  described  an. East  End  parish  in  which  he 
spent  some  of  his  earliest  years.  Over  that 
parish,  he  says,  might  have  been  written  Dante's 
inscription  over  the  entrance  to  the  Inferno : 
"  All  hope  abandon,  ye  who  enter  here."  After 


io  Women   Wage- Earners. 

speaking  of  its  physical  misery  and  its  super- 
natural and  perfectly  astonishing  deadness,  he 
says  that  he  embarked  on  a  voyage  round  the 
world,  and  had  the  opportunity  of  seeing  sav- 
age life  in  all  conceivable  conditions  of  savage 
degradation ;  and  he  writes :  — 

"  I  assure  you  I  found  nothing  worse,  nothing  more 
degrading,  nothing  so  hopeless,  nothing  nearly  so 
intolerably  dull  and  miserable  as  the  life  I  left  be- 
hind me  in  the  East  End  of  London.  Were  the 
alternative  presented  to  me,  I  would  deliberately 
prefer  the  life  of  the  savage  to  that  of  those  people 
in  Christian  London.  Nothing  would  please  me 
better  —  not  even  to  discover  a  new  truth —  than  to 
contribute  toward  the  bettering  of  that  state  of  things 
which,  unless  wise  and  benevolent  men  take  it  in 
hand,  will  tend  to  become  worse,  and  to  create  some- 
thing worse  than  savagery,  —  a  great  Serbonian  bog, 
which  in  the  long  run  will  swallow  up  the  surface 
crust  of  civilization." 

In  a  year  and  more  of  continuous  observa- 
tion and  study  of  working  conditions  in  Eng- 
land and  on  the  Continent,  some  of  which  will 
find  place  later,  my  own  conclusion  was  the 
same.  The  young  emperor  of  Germany,  hot- 
headed, obstinate,  and  self-willed  as  he  may  be, 
is  working  it  would  seem  from  as  radical  a  con- 


Production.  1 1 

viction  of  deep  wrong  in  the  distributive  system. 
The  Berlin  Labor  Conference,  whose  chief  effort 
seems  to  have  been  against  child-labor  and  in 
favor  of  excluding  women  from  the  mines,  or 
at  least  reducing  hours,  and  forbidding  certain 
of  the  heavier  forms  of  labor,  is  but  an  echo  of 
the  great  dock-strikes  of  London  and  the  cry 
of  all  workers  the  world  over  for  a  better 
chance.  The  capitalist  seeks  to  hold  his  own, 
the  laborer  demands  larger  share  of  the  pro- 
duct; and  how  to  render  unto  each  his  due  is 
the  great  politico-economic  question,  —  the  ab- 
sorbing question  of  our  time. 

We  have  found,  then,  that  the  problem  is 
economic,  and  concerns  distribution  only.  There 
is  no  complaint  that  the  capitalist  fails  to  secure 
his  share.  On  the  contrary,  even  among  the 
well-to-do,  deep-seated  alarm  is  evidenced  at 
the  rise  and  progress  of  innumerable  trusts  and 
syndicates,  eliminating  competition,  which  re- 
stricts production  and  raises  prices.  They 
make  their  own  conditions;  drive  from  the 
field  small  tradesmen  and  petty  industries,  or 
absorb  them  on  their  own  terms. 

Rings  of  every  description  in  the  political  and 
the  working  world  combine  for  general  spolia- 


1 2  Women   Wage-Earners. 

tion,  and  the  honest  worker's  money  jingles  in 
every  pocket  but  his  own. 

Granting  all  that  may  be  urged  as  to  the 
capitalists'  investment  of  brain-power  and  ac- 
quired skill,  as  well  as  of  money  with  all  the 
risks  involved,  they  are  the  inactive  rather  than 
the  active  factors  in  production.  They  give  of 
their  store,  while  labor  gives  of  its  life.  Their 
view  is  to  be  reconstructed,  and  profit-sharing 
become  as  much  a  part  of  any  industry  as 
profit-making. 

This  is  a  growing  conviction;  nor  can  we 
wonder  that  realization  of  its  justice  and  its 
possibilities  has  been  a  matter  of  very  recent 
consideration.  An  often  repeated  formula  be- 
comes at  last  ingrained  in  the  mental  constitu- 
tion, and  any  question  as  to  its  truth  is  a  sharp 
shock  to  the  whole  structure.  We  have  been 
so  certain  of  the  surpassing  advantages  of  our 
own  country,  so  certain  that  liberty  and  a 
chance  were  the  portion  of  all,  that  to  confront 
the  real  conditions  in  our  great  cities  is  to 
most  as  unreal  as  a  nightmare. 

We  have  conceded  at  last,  forced  to  it  by  the 
concessions  of  all  students  of  our  economic 
problems,  that  the  laborer  does  not  yet  receive 


Introduction.  1 3 


his  fair  share  of  the  world's  wealth ;  and  the 
economic  thought  of  the  whole  world  is  now 
devoted  to  the  devising  of  means  by  which  he 
may  receive  his  due.  There  is  no  longer  much 
question  as  to  facts;  they  are  only  too  pal- 
pable. Distribution  must  be  reorganized,  and 
haste  must  be  made  to  discover  how. 

It  is  the  wages  problem,  then,  with  which  we 
are  to  deal,  —  the  wages  of  men  and  women ;  and 
we  must  look  at  it  in  its  largest,  most  universal 
aspects.  We  must  dismiss  at  once  any  preju- 
dice born  of  the  ignorance,  incompetency,  or 
untrustworthiness  of  many  workers.  Character 
is  a  plant  cf  slow  growth ;  and  given  the  same 
conditions  of  birth,  education,  and  general  en- 
vironment; it  is  quite  possible  we  should  have 
made  no  better  showing.  We  have  to-day 
three  questions  to  be  answered :  — 

1.  Why  do  men  not  receive  a  just  wage? 

2.  Why  are  women  in  like  case? 

3.  Why  do  men  receive  a  greater  wage  than 
women? 

First,  Why  do  not  men  receive  a  greater  wage 
than  they  do?  can  be  answered  only  suggestively, 
since  volumes  may  be  and  have  been  written 


1 4  Women   Wage-Earners. 

on  all  the  points  involved.  For  skilled  and 
unskilled  labor  alike,  the  differences  in  indus- 
trial efficiency  go  far  toward  regulating  the 
wage,  and  have  been  grouped  under  six  heads 
by  General  Francis  A.  Walker,  whose  volume 
on  the  Wages  Question  is  a  thoughtful  and 
careful  study  of  the  problem  from  the  begin- 
ning. These  heads  are — I.  "Peculiarities  of 
stock  and  breeding.  2.  The  meagreness  or 
liberality  of  diet.  3.  Habits  voluntarily  or  in- 
voluntarily formed  respecting  cleanliness  of  the 
person,  and  purity  of  the  air  and  water.  4.  The 
general  intelligence  of  the  laborer.  5.  Tech- 
nical education  and  industrial  environment- 
6.  Cheerfulness  and  hopefulness  in  labor,  grow- 
ing out  of  self-respect  and  social  ambition  and 
the  laborer's  interest  in  his  work." 

With  this  in  mind,  we  must  accept  the  fact 
that  the  value  of  the  laborer's  services  to  the 
employer  is  the  net  result  of  two  elements,  —  one 
positive,  one  negative  ;  namely,  work  and  waste. 
Under  this  head  of  waste  come  breakage,  un- 
due wear  and  tear  of  implements,  destruction 
or  injury  of  materials,  the  cost  of  supervision  of 
idle  or  blundering  men,  and  often  the  hindrance 
of  many  by  the  fault  of  one.  Modern  processes 


Introduction.  1 5 


involve  so  much  of  this  order  of  waste  that 
often  there  is  doubt  if  work  is  worth  having  or 
not,  and  the  unskilled  laborer  is  either  rejected 
or  receives  only  a  boy's  wage. 

The  various  schools  of  political  economists 
differ  widely  as  to  the  facts  which  have  formu- 
lated themselves  in  what  is  known  as  the  iron 
law  of  wages;  this  meaning  that  wages  are  said 
to  tend  increasingly  to  a  minimum  which  will 
give  but  a  bare  living.  For  skilled  labor  the 
law  may  be  regarded  as  elastic  rather  than  iron. 
For  unskilled,  it  is  as  certainly  the  tendency, 
which,  if  constantly  repeated  and  so  intensified, 
would  end  as  law.  Many  standard  economists 
regard  it  as  already  fixed ;  and  writers  like 
Lasalle,  Proudhon,  Bakumin,  and  Marx  heap 
every  denunciation  upon  it. 

Were  the  fact  actually  established,  no  words 
could  be  too  strong  or  too  bitter  to  define  this 
new  form  of  slavery.  The  standard  of  life  and 
comfort  affects  the  wages  of  labor,  and  there  is 
constant  effort  to  make  the  wage  correspond  to 
this  standard.  It  is  an  unending  and  often 
bitter  struggle,  nowhere  better  summed  up  than 
by  Thorold  Rogers  in  his  u  Six  Centuries  of 
Work  and  Wages,"  —  a  work  upon  which  econo- 


1 6  Women  Wage- Earners. 

mists,  however  different  their  conclusions,  rely 
alike  for  facts  and  figures. 

We  must  then  admit  in  degree  the  tendency 
of  wages  to  a  minimum,  especially  those  of 
unskilled  labor,  and  accept  it  as  one  more  mo- 
tive for  persistent  effort  to  alter  existing  con- 
ditions and  prevent  any  such  culmination. 

Take  now,  in  connection  with  the  six  heads 
mentioned  as  governing  the  present  efficiency 
of  labor,  the  five  enumerated  by  Adam  Smith 
in  his  summary  of  causes  for  differences  in 
wages:  I.  "The  agreeableness  or  disagreeable- 
ness  of  the  employments  themselves.  2.  The 
easiness  and  cheapness,  or  the  difficulty  and 
expense  of  learning  them.  3.  The  constancy 
or  inconstancy  of  employment  in  them.  4. 
The  small  or  great  trust  which  must  be  reposed 
in  those  who  exercise  them.  5.  The  proba- 
bility or  improbability  of  success  in  them." 

These  are  conditions  which  affect  the  man's 
right  to  large  or  small  wage;  but  all  of  them 
presuppose  that  men  are  perfectly  free  to  look 
over  the  whole  industrial  field  and  choose  their 
own  employment,  —  they  presuppose  the  per- 
fect mobility  of  labor.  Let  us  see  what .  this 
means. 


Introduction.  17 


The  theoretical  mobility  of  labor  rests  upon 
the  assumption  that  laborers  of  every  order  will 
in  all  ways  and  at  all  times  pursue  their  eco- 
nomic interests ;  but  the  actual  fact  is  that  so 
far  from  seeking  labor  under  the  most  perfect 
conditions  for  obtaining  it,  nearly  half  of  all 
humankind  are  "  bound  in  fetters  of  race  and 
speech  and  religion  and  caste,  of  tradition  and 
habit  and  ignorance  of  the  world,  of  poverty  and 
ineptitude  and  inertia,  which  practically  exclude 
them  from  the  competitions  of  the  world's 
industry." 

"  Man  is,  of  all  sorts  of  luggage,  the  most 
difficult  to  be  transported,"  was  written  by 
Adam  Smith  long  ago ;  and  this  stands  in  the 
way  of  really  free  and  unhampered  competition. 
Mr.  Frederick  Harrison,  one  of  the  clearest 
thinkers  of  the  day,  has  well  defined  the  differ- 
ence between  the  seller  and  the  producer  of  a 
commodity.  He  says  :  — 

"In  most  cases  the  seller  of  a  commodity  can 
send  it  or  carry  it  from  place  to  place,  and  market  to 
market,  with  perfect  ease.  He  need  not  be  on  the 
spot ;  he  generally  can  send  a  sample  ;  he  usually 
treats  by  correspondence.  A  merchant  sits  in  his 
counting-room,  and  by  a  few  letters  and  forms  trans- 
2 


1 8  Women   Wage-Earners. 

ports  and  distributes  the  subsistence  of  a  whole  city 
from  continent  to  continent.  In  other  cases,  as  the 
shopkeeper,  the  ebb  and  flow  of  passing  multitudes 
supplies  the  want  of  locomotion  for  him.  This  is  a 
true  market.  Here  competition  acts  rapidly,  fully, 
simply,  fairly.  It  is  totally  otherwise  with  a  day 
laborer  who  has  no  commodity  to  sell.  He  must 
himself  be  present  at  every  market,  which  means 
costly,  personal  locomotion.  He  cannot  correspond 
with  his  employer;  he  cannot  send  a  sample  of  his 
strength,  nor  do  employers  knock  at  his  cottage 
door." 

It  is  plain,  then,  that  many  causes  are  at  work 
to  depress  the  wages  even  of  skilled  workers, 
far  more  than  can  be  enumerated  here.  If 
this  is  true  for  men,  how  much  more  strongly 
can  limitations  be  stated  for  women,  as  we 
ask,  "  Why  do  not  women  receive  a  better 
wage?"  Many  of  the  reasons  are  historical, 
and  must  be  considered  in  their  origin  and 
growth.  Taking  her  as  worker  to-day,  pre- 
cisely the  same  general  causes  are  in  operation 
that  govern  the  wages  of  men,  with  the  added 
disability  of  sex,  always  in  the  way  of  equal 
mobility  of  labor. 

Wherever  for  any  reason  there  is  immobility 


///  /;  'oduction .  1 9 


of  labor,  there  is  always  lowering  of  the  wage 
rate.  The  trades  and  general  industries  for 
which  women  are  suited  are  highly  localized. 
They  focus  in  the  cities  and  large  towns,  and 
women  must  seek  them  there.  Great  manu- 
factories drain  the  surrounding  country;  yet 
even  with  these  opportunities  an  analysis  of 
the  industrial  statistics  of  the  United  States  by 
General  Walker  showed  that  the  women  workers 
of  the  country  made  up  but  seven  per  cent  of 
the  entire  population.  Eagerly  as  they  seek 
work,  it  is  far  more  difficult  for  them  to  obtain 
it  than  for  men.  They  require  to  be  much  more 
mobile  and  active  in  their  move  toward  the 
labor  market,  yet  are  disabled  by  timidity,  by 
physical  weakness,  and  by  their  liability  to  in- 
sult or  outrage  arising  from  the  fact  of  sex. 
Men  who  would  secure  a  place  tramp  from 
town  to  town,  from  street  to  street,  or  shop  to 
shop,  persisting  through  all  rebuffs,  till  their 
end  is  accomplished.  They  go  into  suspicious 
and  doubtful  localities,  encounter  strangers,  and 
sleep  among  casual  companions.  In  this  fash- 
ion they  relieve  the  pressure  at  congested 
points,  and  keep  the  mass  fluid. 

For  women,    save  in  the    slight    degree    in- 


2O  Women   Wage-Earners. 

eluded  in  the  country  girl's  journey  to  town  or 
city  where  cotton  or  woollen  mills  offer  an 
opening  for  work,  this  course  is  impossible. 
Ignorant,  fearful,  poor,  and  unprotected,  the 
lions  in  her  way  are  these  very  facts.  Added 
to  this  natural  disqualification,  comes  another,  - 
in  the  lack  of  sympathy  for  her  needs,  and  in 
the  prejudice  which  hedges  about  all  her  move- 
ments. In  every  trade  she  has  sought  to  enter, 
men  have  barred  the  way.  In  a  speech  made 
before  the  House  of  Commons  in  1873,  Henry 
Fawcett  drew  attention  to  the  persistent  resist- 
ance of  men  to  any  admission  of  women  on  the 
same  terms  with  themselves.  He  said  :  — 

"  We  cannot  forget  that  some  years  ago  certain  trade- 
unionists  in  the  potteries  imperatively  insisted  that  a 
certain  rest  for  the  arm  which  they  found  almost 
essential  to  their  work  should  not  be  used  by  women 
engaged  in  the  same  employment.  Not  long  since, 
the  London  tailors,  when  on  a  strike,  having  never 
admitted  a  woman  to  their  union,  attempted  to 
coerce  women  from  availing  themselves  of  the  re- 
munerative employment  which  was  offered  them  in 
consequence  of  the  strike.  But  this  jealousy  of 
woman's  labor  has  not  been  entirely  confined  to 
workmen.  The  same  feeling  has  extended  itself 


Introduction.  2 1 


through  every  class  of  society.  Last  autumn  a  large 
number  of  post-office  clerks  objected  to  the  employ- 
ment of  women  in  the  Post-Office." 

Driven  by  want,  they  had  pressed  into  agri- 
cultural labor  as  well,  and  found  equal  opposi- 
tion there  also.  Mr.  Fawcett  in  the  same 
speech  calls  attention  to  the  fact  of  the 
non-admission  of  women  to  the  Agricultural 
Laborers'  Union,  on  the  ground  that  "  the 
agricultural  laborers  of  the  country  do  not 
wish  to  recognize  the  labor  of  women." 

There  is  more  or  less  reason  for  such  feeling. 
It  arises  in  part  from  the  newness  of  the  occa- 
sion, since  in  the  story  of  labor  as  a  whole,  soon 
to  be  considered  by  us  in  detail,  it  is  only  the 
last  fifty  years  that  have  seen  women  taking  an 
active  part.  We  have  already  seen  that  mo- 
bility of  labor  is  one  of  the  first  essentials,  and 
that  women  are  far  more  limited  in  this  respect 
than  men. 

This  brings  us  to  the  final  question,  —  Why  do 
men  receive  a  larger  wage  than  women?  The 
conditions  already  outlined  are  in  part  respon- 
sible, but  with  them  is  bound  up  another  even 
more  formidable. 

Custom,  the  law  of  manv  centuries,   has  so 


22  Women   Wage- Earners. 

ingrained  its  thought  in  the  constitution  of  men 
that  it  is  naturally  and  inevitably  taken  for 
granted  that  every  woman  who  seeks  work  is 
the  appendage  of  some  man,  and  therefore, 
partially  at  least,  supported.  Other  facts  bias 
the  employer  against  the  payment  of  the  same 
wage.  The  girl's  education  is  usually  less 
practical  than  the  boy's ;  and  as  most,  at  least 
among  the  less  intelligent  class,  regard  a  trade 
as  a  makeshift  to  be  used  as  a  crutch  till  a 
husband  appears,  the  work  involved  is  often 
done  carelessly  and  with  little  or  no  interest. 
With  unintelligent  labor  wastage  is  greater, 
and  wages  proportionately  lower;  and  here 
we  have  one  chief  reason  for  the  difference. 
Others  will  disclose  themselves  as  we  go  on. 

Unskilled  labor  then,  it  is  plain,  must  be  in 
evil  case,  and  it  is  unskilled  laborers  that  are  in 
the  majority.  For  men  this  means  pick  and 
spade  at  such  rates  as  may  be  fixed  ;  for  women 
the  needle,  and  its  myriad  forms  of  cheap  pro- 
duction ;  and  within  these  ranks  is  no  sense  of 
real  economic  interest,  but  the  fiercest  and 
blindest  competition  among  themselves.  Mere 
existence  is  to  a  large  extent  all  that  is  possi- 
ble, and  it  is  fought  for  with  a  fury  in  strange 


Tntroduction.  23 

contrast   to   the    apparent   worth  of  the  thing 
itself. 

It  is  this  battle  with  which  we  have  to  do ; 
and  we  must  go  back  to  the  dawn  of  the  strug- 
gle, and  discover  what  has  been  its  course  from 
the  beginning,  before  any  future  outlook  can 
be  determined.  The  theoretical  political  eco- 
nomist settles  the  matter  at  once.  Whatever 
stress  of  want  or  wrong  may  arise  is  met  by 
the  formula,  "  law  of  supply  and  demand."  If 
labor  is  in  excess,  it  has  simply-  to  mobilize  and 
seek  fresh  channels.  That  Hard  immovable 
facts  are  in  the  way,  that  moral  difficulties  face 
one  at  every  turn,  and  that  the  ethical  side  of 
the  problem  is  a  matter  of  comparatively  recent 
consideration,  makes  no  difference.  Let  us  dis- 
cover what  show  of  right  is  on  the  economist's 
side,  and  how  far  present  conditions  are  a  neces- 
sity of  the  time.  It  is  women  on  whom  the  facts 
weigh  most  heavily,  and  whose  fortunes  are  most 
tangled  in  this  web  woven  from  the  beginning  of 
time,  and  from  that  beginning  drenched  with 
the  tears  and  stained  by  the  blood  of  workers 
in  all  climes  and  in  every  age.  As  women 
we  are  bound,  by  every  law  of  justice,  to  aid 
all  other  women  in  their  struggle.  We  are 


24  Women   Wage-Earners. 

equally  bound  to  define  the  nature,  the  neces- 
sities, and  the  limits  of  such  struggle;  and  it 
is  to  this  end  that  we  seek  now  to  discover, 
through  such  light  as  past  and  present  may 
cast,  the  future  for  women  workers  the  world 
over. 


A  Look  Backward.  25 


I. 

A   LOOK   BACKWARD. 

THE  history  of  women  as  wage-earners  is 
actually  comprised  within  the  limits  of  a 
few  centuries;  but  her  history  as  a  worker  runs 
much  farther  back,  and  if  given  in  full,  would 
mean  the  whole  history  of  working  humanity. 
The  position  of  working  women  all  over  the 
civilized  world  is  still  affected  not  only  by 
the  traditions  but  by  the  direct  inheritance  of 
the  past,  and  thus  the  nature  of  that  inheritance 
must  be  understood  before  passing  to  any 
detailed  consideration  of  the  subject  under  its 
various  divisions.  It  is  the  conditions  under- 
lying history  and  rooted  in  the  facts  of  human 
life  itself  which  we  must  know,  since  from  the 
beginning  life  and  work  have  been  practi- 
cally synonymous,  and  in  the  nature  of  things 
remain  so. 

In  the  shadows  of  that  far  remote  infancy  of 
the  world  where  from  cave-dweller   and    mere 


26  Women   Wage- Earners. 

predatory  animal  man  by  slow  degrees  moved 
toward  a  higher  development,  the  story  of  wo- 
man goes  side  by  side  with  his.  For  neither 
is  there  record  beyond  the  scattered  implements 
of  the  stone  age  and  the  rude  drawings  of  the 
cave-dwellers,  from  which  one  may  see  that 
warfare  was  the  chief  life  of  both.  The  subju- 
gation of  the  weaker  by  the  stronger  is  the  story 
of  all  time ;  the  "  survival  of  the  fittest,"  the 
modern  summary  of  that  struggle. 

Naturally,  slavery  was  the  first  result,  and 
servitude  for  one  side  the  outcome  of  all  strug- 
gle. Physical  facts  worked  with  man's  will  in 
the  matter,  and  early  rendered  woman  subordi- 
nate physically  and  dependent  economically. 
The  origin  of  this  dependence  is  given  with 
admirable  force  and  fulness  by  Professor  Lester 
F.  Ward  in  his  "  Dynamic  Sociology  "  : 1  — 

In  the  struggle  for  supremacy,  "  woman  at 
once  became  property,  since  anything  that 
affords  its  possessor  gratification  is  property. 
Woman  was  capable  of  affording  man  the  high- 
est of  gratifications,  and  therefore  became 

1  Dynamic  Sociology,  or  Applied  Social  Science  as  based 
upon  Statical  Sociology  and  the  Less  Complex  Sciences.  By 
Lester  F.  Ward,  A.M.,  vol.  i.  p.  649. 


u< 

t, 


A  Look  Backward.  27 


property  of  the  highest  value.  Marriage,  under 
the  prevailing  form,  became  the  symbol  of 
transfer  of  ownership,  in  the  same  manner  as 

e  formal  seizin  of  lands.  The  passage  from 
sexual  service  to  manual  service  on  the  part  of 
women  was  perfectly  natural.  .  .  .  And  thus 
we  find  that  the  women  of  most  savage  tribes 
perform  the  manual  and  servile  labor  of  the 
camp." 

"  The  basis  of  all  oppression  is  economic 
dependence  on  the  oppressor,"  is  the  word  of 
a  very  keen  thinker  and  worker  in  the  Ger- 
man Reichstag  to-day ;  and  he  adds  :  "  This  has 
been  the  condition  of  women  in  the  past,  and  it 
still  is  so.  Woman  was  the  first  human  being 
that  tasted  bondage.  Woman  was  a  slave 
before  the  slave  existed." 

Science  has  demonstrated  that  in  all  rude 
races  the  size  and  weight  of  the  brain  differ  far 
less  according  to  sex  than  is  the  case  in  civilized 
nations.  Physical  strength  is  the  same,  with 
the  advantage  at  times  on  the  side  of  the 
woman,  as  in  certain  African  tribes  to-day,  over 
which  tribes  this  fact  has  given  them  the 
mastery.  Primeval  woman,  all  attainable  evi- 
dence goes  to  show,  started  more  nearly  equal 


28  Women   Wage- Earners. 

u 

» 

in  the  race,  b«t  became  the  inferior  of  man, 
when  periods* of  child-bearing  rendered  her 
helpless  and  forced  her  to  look  to  him  for 
assistance,  support,  and  protection. 

When  the  struggle  for  existence  was  in  its 
lowest  and  most  brutal  form,  and  man  respected 
nothing  but  force,  the  disabled  member  of 
society,  if  man,  was  disposed  of  by  stab  or 
blow;  if  woman,  and  valuable  as  breeder  of 
fresh  fighters,  simply  reduced  to  slavery  and 
passive  obedience.  Marriage  in  any  modern 
sense  was  unknown.  A  large  proportion  of 
female  infants  were  killed  at  birth.  Battle,  with 
its  recurring  periods  of  flight  or  victory,  made 
it  essential  that  every  tribe  should  free  itself 
from  all  impedimenta.  It  was  easier  to  capture 
women  by  force  than  to  bring  them  up  from 
infancy,  and  thus  the  childhood  of  the  world 
meant  a  state  in  which  the  child  had  little  place, 
save  as  a  small,  fierce  animal,  whose  develop- 
ment meant  only  a  change  from  infancy  and  its 
helplessness  to  boyhood  and  its  capacity  for 
fight. 

Out  of  this  chaos  of  discordant  elements, 
struggling  unconsciously  toward  social  form, 
emerged  by  slow  degrees  the  tribe  and  the 


A  Look  Backward.  29 

nation,  the  suggestions  of  institutions  and  laws 
and  the  first  principles  of  the  social  state. 
Master  and  servant,  employer  and  employed, 
became  facts  ;  and  dim  suspicions  as  to  economic 
laws  were  penetrating  the  minds  of  the  early 
thinkers.  The  earliest  coherent  thought  on 
economic  problems  comes  to  us  from  the 
Greeks,  among  whom  economic  speculation 
had  begun  almost  a  thousand  years  before 
Christ.  The  problem  of  work  and  wages  was 
even  then  forming,  —  the  sharply  accented  dif- 
ference between  theirs  and  ours  lying  in  the 
fact  that  for  Greek  and  Roman  and  the  earlier 
peoples  in  the  Indies  economic  life  was  based 
upon  slavery,  accepted  then  as  the  foundation 
stone  of  the  economic  social  system. 

Up  to  the  day  when  Greek  thought  on  eco- 
nomic questions  formulated,  in  Aristotle's 
"  Politics  "  and  "  Economics,"  the  first  logical 
statement  of  principles,  knowledge  as  to  actual 
conditions  for  women  is  chiefly  inferential. 
When  a  slave,  she  was  like  other  slaves, 
regarded  as  soulless ;  and  she  still  is,  under 
Mohammedanism.  As  lawful  wife  she  was 
physically  restrained  and  repressed,  and  men- 
tally far  more  so.  A  Greek  matron  was  one 


30  Women   Wage-Earners. 

degree  higher  than  her  servants  ;  but  her  own 
sons  were  her  masters,  to  whom  she  owed 
obedience.  A  striking  illustration  of  this  is 
given  in  the  Odyssey.  Telemachus,  feeling  that 
he  has  come  to  man's  estate,  invades  the  ranks 
of  the  suitors  who  had  for  years  pressed  about 
Penelope,  and  orders  her  to  retire  to  her  own 
apartments,  which  she  does  in  silence.  Yet  she 
was  honored  above  most,  passive  and  prompt 
obedience  being  one  of  her  chief  charms. 

Deep  pondering  brought  about  for  Aristotle 
a  view  which  verges  toward  breadth  and  under- 
standing, but  is  perpetually  vitiated  by  the  fact 
that  he  regards  woman  as  in  no  sense  an  indi- 
vidual existence.  If  all  goes  well  and  prosper- 
ously, women  deserve  no  credit ;  if  ill,  they  may 
gain  renown  through  their  husbands,  the  phi- 
losopher remarking:  "  Neither  would  Alcestis 
have  gained  such  renown,  nor  Penelope  have  been 
deemed  worthy  of  such  praise,  had  they  respec- 
tively lived  with  their  husbands  in  prosperous 
circumstances ;  and  it  is  the  sufferings  of 
Admetus  and  Ulysses  which  have  given  them 
everlasting  fame." 

This  is  Aristotle's  view  of  women's  share  in  the 
life  they  lived  ;  yet  gleams  of  something  higher 


Look  Backward. 

more  than  once  came  to  him,  and  in  the  eighth 
chapter  of  the  "  Economics,"  he  adds  :  "  Justly 
to  love  her  husband  with  reverence  and  respect, 
and  to  be  loved  in  turn,  is  that  which  befits  a 
wife  of  gentle  birth,  as  to  her  intercourse  with 
her  own  husband."  Ulysses,  in  his  address  to 
Nausicaa,  says :  — 


"  There  is  no  fairer  thing 

Than  when  the  lord  and  lady  with  one  soul 

One  home  possess." 


Aristotle,  charmed  at  the  picture,  dilates 
on  this  "  mutual  concord  of  husband  and  wife, 
.  .  .  not  the  mere  agreement  upon  servile  mat- 
ters, but  that  which  is  justly  and  harmoniously 
based  on  intellect  and  prudence."  l 

Side  by  side  with  this  picture  of  a  state 
known  to  a  few  only  among  the  noblest,  must 
be  placed  the  lament  of  "Iphigenia  in  Tauris": 

"  The  condition  of  women  is  worse  than  that  of 
all  human  beings.  If  man  is  favored  by  fortune,  he 
becomes  a  ruler,  and  wins  fame  on  the  battlefield ; 
and  if  the  gods  have  ordained  him  his  fortune,  he  is 
the  first  to  die  a  fair  death  among  his  people.  But 
the  joys  of  woman  are  narrowly  compassed  :  she  is 
given  unasked,  in  marriage,  by  others,  often  to 

1  Economics,  book  i.  chap.  ix. 


3  2  Women   Wage- Earners. 

strangers ;  and  when  she  is  dragged  away  by  the 
victor  through  the  smoking  ruins,  there  is  none  to 
rescue  her." 

Thucydides,  who  had  already  expressed  the 
opinion  quoted  by  many  a  modern  Philistine,— 
"  The  wife  who  deserves  the  highest  praise  is 
she  of  whom  one  hears  neither  good  nor  evil 
outside  her  own  house,"  •  —  anticipates  a  later 
verdict,  in  words  that  might  have  been  the 
foundation  of  Iphigenia's  lament :  — 

"  Woman  is  more  evil  than  the  storm-tossed  waves, 
than  the  heat  of  fire,  than  the  fall  of  the  wild  cata- 
ract !  If  it  was  a  god  who  created  woman,  wherever 
he  may  be,  let  him  know  that  he  is  the  unhappy 
author  of  the  greatest  ills." 

This  was  a  summary  of  the  Greek  view  as  a 
whole.  Sparta  trained  her  girls  and  boys  alike 
in  childhood ;  but  the  theories  of  Lycurgus, 
admirable  at  some  points,  were  brutal  and 
short-sighted  at  others,  and  Sparta  demon- 
strated that  the  extinction  of  all  desire  for 
beauty  or  ease  or  culture  brings  with  it  as 
disastrous  results  as  its  extreme  opposite. 

It  is  Athens  that  sums  up  the  highest  product 
of  Greek  thought,  and  that  represents  a  civili- 


A  Look  Backward.  33 


zation  which  from  the  purely  intellectual  side 
has  had  no  successor.  Yet  even  here  was 
almost  absolute  obtuseness  and  indifference,  on 
the  part  of  the  aristocracy,  to  the  intolerable 
bondage  of  the  masses.  "  The  people,"  as 
spoken  of  by  their  historians  and  philosophers, 
mean  simply  a  middle  class,  the  humblest  mem- 
ber of  which  owned  at  least  one  slave.  The 
slaves  themselves,  the  real  "  masses,"  had  no 
political  or  social  existence  more  than  the 
horses  with  which  they  were  sent  to  the  river 
to  drink.  In  any  scheme  of  political  economy 
Aristotle's  words,  in  the  first  book  of  the 
"  Politics,"  were  the  keynote :  "  The  science  of 
the  master  reduces  itself  to  knowing  how  to  make 
use  of  the  slave.  He  is  the  master,  not  because 
he  is  the  owner  of  the  man,  but  because  he 
knows  how  to  make  use  of  his  property." 

In  fact,  according  to  this  chivalrous  philoso- 
pher, the  man  was  the  head  of  the  family  in 
three  distinct  capacities ;  for  he  says :  "  Now  a 
freeman  governs  his  slave  in  the  manner  the 
male  governs  the  female,  and  in  another  manner 
the  father  governs  his  child ;  and  these  have  the 
different  parts  of  the  soul  within  them,  but  in 
a  different  manner.  Thus  a  slave  can  have  no 
3 


34  Women   Wage-Earners. 

deliberative  faculty ;  a  woman  but  a  weak  one, 
a  child  an  imperfect  one." 

That  liberty  could  be  their  right  appears  to 
have  been  not  even  suspected.  Yet  out  from 
these  dumb  masses  of  humanity,  regarded  less 
than  brutes,  toiling  naked  under  summer  sun 
or  in  winter  cold,  chained  in  mines,  men  and 
women  alike,  and  when  the  whim  came,  massa- 
cred in  troops,  sounded  at  intervals  a  voice 
demanding  the  liberty  denied.  It  was  quickly 
stifled.  The  record  is  there  for  all  to  read; 
stifled  again  and  again,  from  Drimakos  the 
Chian  slave  to  Spartacus  at  Rome,  yet  each 
protest  from  this  unknown  army  of  martyrs 
was  one  step  onward  toward  the  emancipation 
to  come.  In  each  revolution,  however  small, 
two  parties  confronted  each  other,  —  the  people 
who  wished  to  live  by  the  labor  of  others,  the 
people  who  wished  to  live  by  their  own  labor,  — 
the  former  denying  in  word  and  deed  the  claim 
of  the  latter. 

Such  conditions,  as  we  proved  in  our  own 
experience  of  slavery,  benumb  spiritual  per- 
ception and  make  clear  vision  impossible;  and 
it  is  plain  that  if  the  mass  of  workers  had  nei- 
ther political  nor  social  place,  woman,  the  slave 


A  Look  Backward.  35 


of  the  slave,  had  even  less.  Her  wage  had 
never  been  fixed.  That  she  had  right  to  one 
had  entered  no  imagination.  To  the  end  of 
Greek  civilization  a  wage  remained  the  right  of 
free  labor  only.  The  slave,  save  by  special 
permit  of  the  master,  had  right  only  to  bare 
subsistence ;  and  though  men  and  women  toiled 
side  by  side,  in  mine  or  field  or  quarry,  there 
was,  even  with  the  abolition  of  slavery,  small 
betterment  of  the  condition  of  women.  The 
degradation  of  labor  was  so  complete,  even  for 
the  freeman,  that  the  most  pronounced  aversion 
to  taking  a  wage  ruled  among  the  entire  edu- 
cated class.  Plato  abhorred  a  sophist  who 
would  work  for  wages.  A  gift  was  legitimate, 
but  pay  ignoble ;  and  the  stigma  of  asking  for 
and  taking  pay  rested  upon  all  labor.  The 
abolition  of  slavery  made  small  difference,  for 
the  taint  had  sunk  in  too  deeply  to  be  eradi- 
cated. A  curse  rested  upon  all  labor ;  and  even 
now,  after  four  thousand  years  of  vacillating 
progress  and  retrogression,  it  lingers  still. 

The  ancients  were,  in  the  nature  of  things, 
all  fighters.  Even  when  slavery  for  both  the 
Aryan  and  Semitic  races  ended,  two  orders  still 
faced  each  other :  aristocracy  on  the  one  side, 


36  Women   Wage-Earners. 

claiming  the  fruits  of  labor;  the  freeman  on 
the  other,  rebelling  against  injustice,  and  form- 
ing secret  unions  for  his  own  protection,  —  the 
beginning  of  the  co-operative  principle  in  action. 
Thus  much  for  the  Greek.  Turn  now  to  the 
second  great  civilization,  the  Roman.  During 
the  first  centuries  after  the  founding  of  Rome 
the  Roman  woman  had  no  rights  whatever,  her 
condition  being  as  abject  as  that  of  the  Grecian. 
With  the  growth  of  riches  and  of  power  in  the 
State,  more  social  but  still  no  legal  freedom 
was  accorded.  The  elder  Cato  complained  of 
the  allowing  of  more  liberty,  and  urged  that 
every  father  of  a  family  should  keep  his  wife 
in  the  proper  state  of  servility;  but  in  spite  of 
this  remonstrance,  a  movement  for  the  better 
had  begun.  Under  the  Empire,  woman  acquired 
the  right  of  inheritance,  but  she  herself  remained 
a  minor,  and  could  dispose  of  nothing  without 
the  consent  of  her  guardian.  Sir  Henry  Maine  1 
calls  attention  to  the  institution  known  to  the 
oldest  Roman  law  as  the  "  Perpetual  Tutelage 
of  Women,"  under  which  a  female,  though 
relieved  from  her  parent's  authority  by  his 
decease,  continues  subject  through  life.  Vari- 

1  Ancient  Law,  p.  147. 


A  Look  Backward. 

ous  schemes  were  devised  to  enable  her  to 
defeat  ancient  rules ;  and  by  their  theory  of 
"  Natural  Law,"  the  jurisconsults  had  evidently 
assumed  the  equality  of  the  sexes  as  a  principle 
of  their  code  of  equity." 

Few  more  significant  words  or  words  more 
teeming  with  importance  on  the  actual  eco- 
nomic condition  of  women  have  ever  been 
written  than  those  of  the  great  jurist  whose  name 
counts  as  almost  final  authority.  "  Ancient 
law,"  he  writes,  "  subordinates  the  woman  to 
her  blood  relations,  while  a  prime  phenomenon 
of  modern  jurisprudence  has  been  her  subordi- 
nation to  her  husband."  Under  the  modified 
laws  as  to  marriage,  he  goes  on  to  state,  there 
came  a  time  "  when  the  situation  of  the  Roman 
female,  unmarried  or  married,  became  one  of 
great  personal  and  proprietary  independence; 
for  the  tendency  of  the  later  law,  as  already 
hinted,  was  to  reduce  the  power  of  the  guardian 
to  a  nullity,  while  the  form  of  marriage  in 
fashion  conferred  on  the  husband  no  compen- 
sating superiority." 

These  were  the  final  conditions  for  the 
Roman,  whose  power,  sapped  by  long  excesses, 
was  even  then  trembling  to  its  fall.  Already 


38  Women   Wage-Earners. 

the  barbarians  threatened  them,  and  at  various 
points  had  penetrated  the  Empire,  showing  to 
the  amazed  Romans  morals  absolutely  opposed 
to  their  own.  The  German  races  contented 
themselves  with  one  wife ;  and  Tacitus  wrote  of 
them:  " Their  marriages  are  very  strict.  No 
one  laughs  at  vice,  nor  is  immorality  regarded 
as  a  sign  of  good  breeding.  The  young  men 
marry  late,  —  they  marry  equal  in  years  and  in 
health,  and  the  strength  of  the  parent  is  trans- 
mitted to  the  children." 

This  has  a  rosier  aspect  than  facts  warrant. 
For  the  Germans,  as  for  other  barbarians  of  that 
epoch,  the  patriarchal  family  was  the  social 
order,  and  the  head  of  the  family  the  lord 
of  the  community.  Wives,  daughters,  and 
daughters-in-law  were  excluded  from  leader- 
ship, though  in  spite  of  this  there  is  record  of 
a  woman  as  being  occasionally  at  the  head  of 
a  tribe,  —  a  circumstance  chronicled  by  Tacitus 
with  much  disgust. 

While  from  the  West  this  gigantic  wave  of 
powerful  but  uncultured  life  was  flowing  in, 
from  the  East  had  come  another.  Early  Chris- 
tianity had  already  established  itself,  and  its 
ascetic  teachings  made  another  element  in  the 


A  Look  Backward.  39 

contradictions  of  the  time.  Up  to  this  date 
slavery  had  been  the  foundation  of  society,  and 
any  amelioration  in  the  condition  of  women 
had  applied  only  to  the  patrician  class.  The 
Carpenter  of  Nazareth  set  his  seal  upon  the 
sacredness  of  labor,  and  taught  first  not  only 
the  rights  but  the  immeasurable  value  of  even 
the  weakest  human  soul.  Women  were  ardent 
converts  to  the  new  gospel.  Hoping  with  all 
the  wretched  for  redemption  and  deliverance 
from  present  evils,  they  became  eager  and 
devoted  adherents.  Their  missionary  zeal  was 
a  powerful  agent  in  the  early  days  of  Chris- 
tianity. "  In  the  first  enthusiasm  of  the  Chris- 
tian movement,"  says  Principal  Donaldson,  in 
his  notable  article  on  "  Women  among  the 
Early  Christians,"  in  the  "  Fortnightly  Review," 
"  women  were  allowed  to  do  whatever  they 
were  fitted  to  do." 

All  this  within  a  few  generations  came  to  an 
end.  Widows  of  sixty  and  over  retained  the 
power  which  had  been  given,  and  a  new  order 
arose,  —  deaconesses  who  were  not  allowed 
marriage.  Neither  widows  nor  deaconesses 
could  teach,  the  Church  being  especially  jealous 
in  this  respect  and  in  substantial  agreement 


40  Women   Wage-Earners. 

with  Sophocles,  who  said,  "  Silence  is  a  woman's 
ornament." 

Tertullian  waxes  furious  over  the  thought  of 
a  woman  learning  much,  and  still  more,  ven- 
turing to  use  such  acquirement;  but  heretical 
Christians  insisted  that  the  respect  which 
Romans  had  paid  to  the  Vestal  Virgin  was 
her  right,  and  each  founder  of  a  new  sect  had 
some  woman  as  helper.  But  as  a  rule,  her 
highest  post  during  the  first  three  centuries  of 
Christianity  was  that  of  doorkeeper  or  message- 
woman,  her  econonic  dependence  upon  man 
being  absolute.  Social  problems  remained 
chiefly  untouched.  No  objection  was  made 
to  the  existence  of  slavery.  In  this  gospel  of 
love  the  Christian  slave  became  the  brother  of 
all,  and  kindliness  was  his  right;  but  their 
faith  demanded  contentment  with  all  present 
ills,  since  a  glorious  future  was  to  compensate 
them.  A  Christian  slave-woman  was  the  prop- 
erty of  her  master,  who  had  absolute  power 
over  her;  but  no  objection  seems  to  have  been 
made  to  this. 

In  the  mean  time  many  doubts  as  to  marriage 
seem  to  have  arisen.  Paul  had  set  his  seal  on 
the  subjection  of  women,  and  Peter  followed  suit. 


A  Look  Backward.  41 

Antagonism  to  marriage  grew  and  intensified, 
till  hardly  a  Father  of  the  early  Church  but  ful- 
minated against  it.  Fiercest,  loudest,  and  most 
heeded  of  all,  the  voice  of  Tertullian  still  sounds 
down  the  ages.  This  is  his  address  to  women : 

"  Do  you  not  know  ( hat  each  one  of  you  is  an  Eve  ? 
The  sentence  of  God  on  this  sex  of  yours  lives  in 
this  age ;  the  guilt  must  of  necessity  live  too.  You 
are  the  devil's  gateway;  you  are  the  unsealer  of 
that  forbidden  tree ;  you  are  the  first  deserter  of 
the  divine  law;  you  are  she  who  persuaded  him 
whom  the  devil  was  not  valiant  enough  to  attack. 
You  destroyed  so  easily  God's  image,  man.  On 
account  of  your  desert,  that  is,  death,  even  the  Son 
of  God  had  to  die." 

Clement  of  Alexandria  supplemented  this 
verdict  with  one  as  bitter,  and  Cyprian  and  the 
rest  echoed  the  general  anathema.  As  marriage 
grew  thus  more  and  more  degraded,  the  num- 
ber of  the  women  in  the  world  steadily  increased, 
and  posterity  in  like  ratio  deteriorated.  The 
summary  of  Principal  Donaldson,  in  the  article 
already  referred  to,  is  the  keynote  to  the  whole 
situation. 

"The  less  spiritual  classes  of  the  people,  the 
laymen, ,  being  taught  that  marriage  might  be  licen- 


42  Women   Wage- Earners. 

tious,  and  that  it  implied  an  inferior  state  of  sanctity, 
were  rather  inclined  to  neglect  matrimony  for  more 
loose  connections ;  and  it  was  these  people  alone 
that  then  peopled  the  world.  It  was  the  survival  of 
the  unfktest.  The  noble  men  and  women,  on  the 
other  hand,  who  were  dominated  by  the  loftiest  aspi- 
rations and  exhibited  the  greatest  temperance,  self- 
control,  and  virtue,  left  no  children." 

Sir  Henry  Maine  comes  to  the  same  conclu- 
sion, and  deplores  the  fact  of  the  loss  of  liberty 
for  women,  adding:  "The  prevalent  state  of 
religious  sentiment  may  explain  why  it  is  that 
modern  jurisprudence,  forged  in  the  furnace  of 
barbarian  conquest,  and  formed  by  the  fusion 
of  Roman  jurisprudence  with  patriarchal  usage, 
has  absorbed  among  its  rudiments  much  more 
than  usual  of  those  rules  concerning  the  posi- 
tion of  women  which  belong  peculiarly  to  an 
imperfect  civilization."  And  he  adds  words 
which  come  from  a  man  who  is  a  good  Chris- 
tian as  well  as  a  profound  student:  "  No  society 
which  preserves  any  tincture  of  Christian  insti- 
tutions is  likely  to  restore  to  married  women 
the  personal  liberty  conferred  on  them  by  the 
middle  Roman  law." 

Passing   now   to  the    Middle  Ages,   we    find 


A  Look  Backward.  43 

conditions  curiously  involved.  The  exaltation 
of  celibacy  as  the  true  condition  for  the  reli- 
gious, and  the  consequent  enormous  increase 
of  convents,  placed  fresh  barriers  in  the  way  of 
marriage ;  and  the  Church  having  attracted  the 
gentle  and  devoted  among  the  women  and  the 
more  intelligent  among  the  men,  the  reproduc- 
tion of  the  species  was  for  the  most  part  still  left 
to  the  brutal  and  ignorant,  thus  leading  to  a 
survival  of  the  unfittest  to  aid  in  any  advance- 
ment of  the  race. 

The  number  of  women  far  exceeded  that  of 
men,  who  died  not  only  from  constant  feuds 
and  struggles,  but  from  many  pestilences,  which 
naturally,  in  a  day  when  sanitary  laws  were  un- 
known, ravaged  the  country.  Dr.  Karl  Biicher, 
commenting  on  the  relation  of  this  fact  to  the 
life  of  women  at  that  time,  notes  that  from 
1336  to  1400  thirty -two  years  of  plague  oc- 
curred, forty-two  between  1400  and  1500,  and 
thirty  between  1500  and  1600.  In  addition  to 
the  convents,  which  received  the  well-to  do, 
many  towns  established  Bettina  institutions, 
houses  of  God,  where  destitute  women  were 
cared  for;  but  it  was  impossible  for  all  who 
sought  admittance  to  be  provided  for. 


44  Women    Wage- Earners. 

The  feudal  system,  with  its  absolute  power 
over  its  serfs,  had  driven  thousands  into  open 
revolt;  and  beggars,  highwaymen,  and  robbers 
made  life  perilous  and  trade  impossible. 

The  towns  banded  together  for  protection  of 
life  and  industry,  and  thus  developed  the  guild 
of  the  Middle  Ages.  Relieved  from  the.fear  of 
free-booting  barons,  no  less  dangerous  than  the 
hordes  of  organized  robbers,  these  guilds  grew 
populous  and  powerful.  Licentiousness  did  not, 
however,  lessen.  Luther  thundered  against  it, 
before  his  own  revolt  came ;  and  the  Reforma- 
tion demanded  marriage  as  the  right  and  privi- 
lege of  a  people  falsely  taught  its  debasing  and 
unholy  nature. 

We  count  the  days  of  chivalry  as  the  paradise 
of  women.  Chivalry  was  for  the  few,  not  the 
many;  for  the  mass  of  women  was  still  the  utter 
degradation  of  a  barbarous  past,  and  the  bur- 
den of  grinding  laws  resulting  from  it.  With 
the  Reformation,  Germany  ceased  to  be  *the 
centre  of  European  traffic ;  and  Spain,  Portugal, 
Holland,  and  England  took  the  lead  in  quick 
succession,  England  retaining  it  to  the  present 
time.  German  commerce  and  trade  steadily 
declined;  and  as  the  guilds  saw  their  impor- 


A  Look  Backward.  45 

tance  and  profits  lessen,  they  made  fresh  and 
more  stringent  regulations  against  all  new- 
comers. Competitors  of  every  order  were  re- 
fused admission.  Heavy  taxes  on  settlement, 
costly  master-examinations,  limitations  of  every 
trade  to  a  certain  number  of  masters  and  jour- 
neymen, forced  thousands  into  dependence  from 
which  there  was  no  escape. 

Looking  at  the  time  as  a  whole,  one  sees 
clearly  how  old  distinctions  had  become  oblit- 
erated. Wealth  found  new  definitions.  The 
Church  had  made  poverty  the  highest  state, 
and  insisted,  as  she  does  in  part  to-day,  that  the 
suffering  and  deprivation  of  one  class  were 
ordained  of  God  to  draw  out  the  sympathies 
of  the  other.  The  rich  must  save  their  souls 
by  alms  and  endowments,  and  contentment  and 
acquiescence  were  to  be  the  virtues  of  the 
poor. 

Insensibly  this  view  was  modified.  Charle- 
magne, whose  extraordinary  personal  power 
and  common-sense  moulded  men  at  will,  set 
an  example  no  monarch  had  ever  set  before. 
He  ordered  the  sale  of  eggs  from  his  hens  and 
the  vegetables  from  his  gardens ;  and,  scorn  it 
as  they  might,  his  sneering  nobles  insensibly 


46  Women   Wage-Earners. 

modified  their  own  thought  and  action.  Com- 
merce brought  the  people  and  products  of 
new  countries  face  to  face.  The  lines  of  caste, 
as  sharply  defined  within  the  labor  world  as 
without,  were  gradually  dimmed  or  obliterated. 
The  practice  of  credit  and  exchange,  largely 
the  creation  of  the  persecuted  Jews,  made  easy 
the  interchange  of  commodities.  Saint  Louis 
himself  organized  industry,  and  divided  the 
trades  into  brotherhoods,  put  under  the  protec- 
tion of  the  saints  from  the  tyranny  of  the  barons 
and  of  the  feudal  system  which  had  weighted 
all  industry. 

Reform  began  in  the  year  1257,  in  the  "  Insti- 
tutions" of  Saint  Louis,  —  a  set  of  clear  and  defi- 
nite rules  for  the  development  of  public  wealth 
and  the  general  good  of  the  people.  In  their  first 
joy  at  this  escape  from  long-continued  oppres- 
sion, many  of  the  towns  of  the  Middle  Ages 
had  admitted  women  to  citizenship  on  an  equal 
footing  with  men.  In  1160  Louis  le  Jeune,  of 
France,  granted  to  Theci,  wife  of  Yves,  and  to 
her  heirs,  the  grand- mastership  of  the  five 
trades  of  cobblers,  belt-makers,  sweaters,  leather- 
dressers,  and  purse-makers.  In  Frankfort  and 
the  Silesian  towns  there  were  female  furriers; 


A  Look  Backward.  47 

along  the  middle  Rhine  many  female  bakers 
were  at  work.  Cologne  and  Strasburg  had 
female  saddlers  and  embroiderers  of  coats-of- 
arms.  Frankfort  had  female  tailors,  Nurem- 
burg  female  tanners,  and  in  Cologne  were 
several  skilled  female  goldsmiths. 

Twelve  hundred  years  of  struggle  toward 
some  sort  of  justice  seemed  likely  at  this  point 
to  be  lost,  for  with  the  opening  of  the  thirteenth 
century  each  and  all  of  the  guilds  proceeded 
to  expel  every  woman  in  the  trades.  It  is  a 
curious  fact  in  the  story  of  all  societies  approach- 
ing dissolution,  that  its  defenders  adopt  the  very 
means  best  adapted  to  hasten  this  end.  Each 
corporation  dreaded  an  increase  of  numbers, 
and  restricted  marriages,  and  reduced  the  num- 
ber of  independent  citizens.  Many  towns 
placed  themselves  voluntarily  under  the  rule 
of  princes  who  in  turn  were  trying  to  subju- 
gate the  nobility,  and  so  protected  the  towns 
and  accorded  all  sorts  of  rights  and  privileges. 

The  Thirty  Years'  War,  from  1618  to  1648,  de- 
cimated the  German  population,  and  reduced 
still  further  the  possibility  of  marriage  for  many. 
Forced  out  of  trades,  women  had  only  the  low- 
est, most  menial  forms  of  trade  labor  as  resort, 


48  Women   Wage-Earners. 

and  their  position  was  to  all  appearance  nearly 
hopeless. 

In  spite  of  this,  certain  trades  were  practi- 
cally woman's.  Embroidery  of  church  vest- 
ments and  hangings  had  been  brought  to  the 
highest  perfection.  Lace-making  had  been 
known  from  the  most  ancient  times ;  and  Col- 
bert, the  famous  financier  and  minister  for 
Louis  XIV.,  gave  a  privilege  to  Madame 
Gilbert,  of  Alenc^on,  to  introduce  into  France 
the  manufacture  of  both  Flemish  and  Venetian 
Point,  and  placed  in  her  hands  for  the  first 
expenses  150,000  francs.  The  manufacture 
spread  over  every  country  of  Europe,  though 
in  1640  the  Parliament  of  Toulouse  sought  to 
drive  out  women  from  the  employment,  on 
the  plea  that  the  domestic  were  her  only 
legitimate  occupations.  A  monk  came  to  the 
rescue,  and  demonstrated  that  spinning,  weav- 
ing, and  all  forms  of  preparing  and  decorating 
stuffs  had  been  hers  from  the  beginning  of 
time,  and  thus  for  a  season  averted  further 
action. 

The  monk  had  learned  his  lesson  better 
than  most  of  the  workmen  who  sought  to 
curtail  woman's  opportunities.  In  the  chroni- 


A  Look  Backward.  49 

cles  of  that  time  there  is  full  description  of  the 
workshops  which  formed  part  of  every  great 
estate,  that  known  as  the  gyn&ceum  being 
devoted  to  the  women  and  children,  who  spun, 
wove,  made  up,  and  embroidered  stuffs  of  every 
order.  The  Abbey  of  Niederalteich  had  such 
a  gynceceum,  in  which  twenty-two  women  and 
children  worked,  while  that  of  Stephenswert 
employed  twenty-four;  co-operation  in  such 
labor  having  been  found  more  advantageous 
than  isolated  work.  Before  the  tenth  century 
these  workshops  had  been  established  at  many 
points.  If  part  of  a  feudal  manor,  the  wife  of 
its  lord  acted  often  as  overseer ;  if  attached  to 
some  abbey,  a  general  overlooker  filled  the 
same  place.  In  the  convents  manual  labor 
came  into  favor ;  and  the  spinning,  weaving,  and 
dyeing  of  stuffs  occupied  a  large  part  of  the 
life. 

Apprenticeship  for  both  male  and  female 
was  finally  well  established,  and  many  women 
became  the  successful  heads  of  prosperous  in- 
dustries. The  wage  was,  as  it  is  to-day,  the 
merest  pittance;  but  any  wage  whatever  was 
an  advance  upon  the  conditions  of  earlier 
servitude. 

4 


50  Women   Wage- Earners. 

Life  had  small  joy  for  women  in  those  days 
we  call  the  "  good  old  times."  Take  the  mar- 
ried woman,  the  house-mother  of  that  period. 
She  not  only  lived  in  the  strictest  retirement, 
but  her  duties  were  so  complex  and  manifold 
that,  to  quote  Bebel,  "  a  conscientious  house- 
wife had  to  be  at  her  post  from  early  in  the 
morning  till  late  at  night  in  order  to  fulfil  them. 
It  was  not  only  a  question  of  the  daily  house- 
hold duties  that  still  fall  to  the  lot  of  the 
middle-class  housekeeper,  but  of  many  others 
from  which  she  has  been  entirely  freed  by  the 
modern  development  of  industry,  and  the  ex- 
tension of  means  of  transport.  She  had  to 
spin,  weave,  and  bleach ;  to  make  all  the  linen 
and  clothes,  to  boil  soap,  to  make  candles  and 
brew  beer.  In  addition  to  these  occupations, 
she  frequently  had  to  work  in  the  field  or  gar- 
den and  to  attend  to  the  poultry  and  cattle. 
In  short,  she  was  a  veritable  Cinderella,  and 
her  solitary  recreation  was  going  to  church  on 
Sunday.  Marriages  only  took  place  within  the 
same  social  circles ;  the  most  rigid  and  absurd 
spirit  of  caste  ruled  everything,  and  brooked  no 
transgression  of  its  law.  The  daughters  were 
educated  on  the  same  principles ;  they  were 


A  Look  Backward.  51 

kept  in  strict  home  seclusion ;  their  mental  de- 
velopment was  of  the  lowest  order,  and  did 
not  extend  beyond  the  narrowest  limits  of 
household  life.  And  all  this  was  crowned  by 
an  empty  and  meaningless  etiquette,  whose 
part  it  was  to  replace  mind  and  culture, 
and  which  made  life  altogether,  and  espe- 
cially that  of  a  woman,  a  perfect  treadmill  of 
labor." 

How  was  it  possible  that  a  condition  as 
joyless  and  fruitless  as  this  should  be  the  ac- 
cepted ideal  of  womanhood?  Already  the 
question  is  answered.  For  ages  her  identity 
had  been  merged  in  that  of  the  man  by  whose 
side  she  worked  with  no  thought  of  recom- 
pense. She  toiled  early  and  late,  filling  the 
office  of  general  helper  on  the  same  terms;  and 
even  to-day,  under  our  own  eyes,  the  wife  of 
many  a  farmer  goes  through  her  married  life 
often  not  touching  five  dollars  in  cash  in  an 
entire  year. 

Submissiveness,  clinging  affection,  humility, 
all  the  traits  accounted  distinctively  feminine, 
and  the  natural  and  ever-increasing  result  of 
steady  suppression  of  all  stronger  ones  stood 
in  the  way  of  any  resistance.  Intellectual  quali- 


5  2  Women    Wage-Earners. 

ties,  forever  at  a  discount,  repressed  develop- 
ment save  in  rarest  cases.  The  mass  of  women 
had  neither  power  nor  wish  to  protest;  and  thus 
the  few  traces  we  find  of  their  earliest  connec- 
tion with  labor  show  us  that  they  accepted 
bare  subsistence  as  all  to  which  they  were 
entitled,  and  were  grateful  if  they  escaped  the 
beating  which  the  lower  order  of  Englishman 
still  regards  it  as  his  right  to  give.  Even  in 
our  own  country  and  our  own  time  this  theory 
is  not  altogether  extinct.  The  papers  only 
recently  contained  an  account  of  the  brutal 
beating  of  a  woman  by  a  man.  The  woman  in 
remonstrating  cried,  "  You  have  no  right  to 
beat  me  !  I  am  not  your  wife !  " 

During  the  Middle  Ages,  and  indeed  well 
into  the  nineteenth  century,  possession  of  prop- 
erty by  women  was  confined  to  the  unmarried, 
the  entire  control  and  practical  ownership  pass- 
ing to  the  husband  upon  marriage. 

Change  comes  at  last  to  even  the  most  fos- 
silized thought.  One  by  one,  social  institutions 
clung  to  with  fiercest  tenacity  fell  away.  Bar- 
baric independence  had  followed  Greek  and 
Roman  slavery,  which  in  turn  was  succeeded 
by  feudal  servitude,  to  reappear  once  more  in 


A  Look  Backward.  53 

the  affranchised  communes.  Each  experiment 
had  its  season,  and  sunk  into  the  darkness  of 
the  past,  to  give  place  to  a  new  one,  which 
must  transmit  to  posterity  the  principal  and 
interest  of  all  preceding  ones.  But  though 
progress  when  taken  in  the  mass  is  plain,  the 
individual  years  in  each  generation  show  small 
trace  of  it.  Even  as  late  as  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, the  workman  fared  little  better  than  the 
brutes.  Erasmus  tells  us  that  their  houses  had 
no  chimneys,  and  their  floors  were  bare  ground ; 
while  Fortescue,  who  travelled  in  France  at 
the  same  time,  reports  a  misery  and  degrada- 
tion which  have  had  vivid  portraiture  in  Taine's 
"  Ancien  Regime." 

A  flood  of  wealth  poured  in  on  the  discovery 
of  the  New  World.  The  invention  of  gun- 
powder put  a  new  face  upon  warfare,  and  that 
of  printing  made  possible  the  cheap  and  wide 
dissemination  of  long-smouldering  ideas.  Eco- 
nomic problems  perplexed  every  country,  and 
on  all  sides  methods  of  solving  them  were  put 
in  action.  Sully,  who  found  in  Henry  IV.  of 
France  an  ardent  supporter  of  his  wishes  for  her 
prosperity,  had  altered  and  systematized  taxes, 
and  introduced  a  multitude  of  reforms  in  gen- 


54  Women   Wage- Earners. 

eral  administration ;  and  later,  Colbert  did  even 
more  notable  work.  The  Italian  Republics  had 
made  their  noble  code  of  commercial  rules  and 
maxims.  The  Dutch  had  given  to  the  world 
one  of  the  most  wonderful  examples  of  what 
man  may  accomplish  by  sheer  pluck  and  per- 
sistent hard  work,  and  commercial  institu- 
tions founded  on  a  principle  of  liberty;  and 
neither  the  terror  of  the  Spanish  rule  nor  the 
jealousy  of  England  had  destroyed  her  power. 
Credit,  banking,  all  modern  forms  of  exchange 
were  coming  into  use ;  and  agriculture,  which 
the  feudal  system  had  kept  in  a  state  of 
torpor,  awakened  and  became  a  productive 
power. 

Side  by  side  with  this  were  gigantic  specu- 
lations, like  that  of  John  Law  and  the  East 
India  Company,  with  the  helpless  ruin  of  its 
collapse.  The  time  was  ripe  for  the  formula- 
tion of  some  system  of  economic  laws;  and  two 
men  who  had  long  pondered  them,  De  Gour- 
nay  and  Quesnay,  made  the  first  attempt  to 
explain  the  meaning  of  wealth  and  its  distri- 
bution. After  Quesnay  and  his  system,  still 
holding  honorable  place,  came  Turgot;  after 
Turgot,  Adam  Smith ;  and  thenceforward  halt  is 


A  Look  Backward.  55 

impossible,  and  economic  science  marches  on 
with  giant  strides. 

In  all  this  progress  woman  had  shared  many 
of  the  material  benefits,  but  her  industrial  posi- 
tion had  altered  but  slightly.  Driven  from  the 
trades,  she  had  passed  into  the  ranks  of  agri- 
cultural laborers;  and  Thorold  Rogers,  in  his 
"  Work  and  Wages,"  records  her  early  work 
in  this  direction.  France  held  the  most  en- 
lightened view,  and  even  then  women  took 
active  part  in  business,  and  had  a  position  un- 
known in  any  other  country;  but  they  had  no 
place  in  any  system  of  the  economists,  nor  did 
their  labor  count  as  a  force  to  be  enumerated. 
Slowly  machinery  was  making  its  way,  feared 
and  hated  by  the  lower  order  of  workers,  eyed 
distrustfully  and  uncertainly  by  the  higher. 
Men  and  women  struggling  for  bare  subsist- 
ence had  become  active  competitors,  till,  in 
1789,  a  general  petition  entitled  "Petition  of 
Women  of  the  Third  Estate  to  the  King  "  was 
signed  by  hundreds  of  French  workers,  who, 
made  desperate  by  starvation  and  underpay, 
demanded  that  every  business  which  included 
spinning,  weaving,  sewing,  or  knitting  should 
be  given  to  women  exclusively.  Side  by  side 


56  Women   Wage- Earners. 

with  the  wave  of  political  revolution,  strongest 
for  France  and  America,  came  the  industrial 
revolution ;  and  the  opening  of  the  nineteenth 
century  brought  with  it  the  myriad  changes 
we  are  now  to  face. 


During  the  Colonial  Period.        57 


II. 


EMPLOYMENTS  FOR  WOMEN  DURING  THE  COLO- 
NIAL PERIOD,  AND  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OF 
THE  FACTORY. 

FOR  nearly  a  century  and  a  half,  dating 
from  the  landing  of  the  Pilgrims  on 
Plymouth  Rock,  the  condition  of  laboring 
women  was  that  of  the  same  class  in  all  strug- 
gling colonies.  There  were  practically  no 
women  wage-earners,  save  in  domestic  service, 
where  a  home  and  from  thirty  to  a  hundred 
dollars  a  year  was  accounted  wealth,  the  latter 
sum  being  given  in  a  few  instances  to  the  house- 
keepers in  great  houses.  Each  family  represented 
a  commonwealth,  and  its  women  gave  every 
energy  to  the  crowding  duties  of  a  daily  life 
filled  with  manifold  occupations. 

The  farmer — for  all  were  farmers  —  was  often 
blacksmith,  shoemaker,  and  carpenter,  and  more 
or  less  proficient  in  every  trade  whose  offices 
were  called  for  in  the  family  life.  The  farmer's 


58  Women   Wage- Earners. 

wife  spun  and  wove  the  cloth  he  wore  and  the 
linen  that  made  his  household  furnishing,  and 
was  dyer  and  dresser,  brewer  and  baker,  seam- 
stress, milliner,  and  dressmaker.  The  quickness, 
adaptiveness  to  new  conditions,  and  the  fertility 
of  resource  which  are  recognized  as  distinguish- 
ing the  American,  were  born  of  the  colonial 
struggle,  especially  of  the  final  one  which  sepa- 
rated us  forever  from  English  rule. 

The  wage  of  the  few  women  found  in  labor 
outside  the  home  was  gauged  by  that  which 
had  ruled  in  England.  For  unskilled  labor,  as 
that  employed  occasionally  in  agriculture,  this 
had  been  from  one  shilling  and  sixpence  for 
ordinary  field  work  to  two  shillings  a  week  paid 
in  haying  and  harvest  time.  For  hoeing  corn 
or  rough  weeding  there  is  record  of  one  shilling 
per  week,  and  this  is  the  usual  wage  for  old 
women.  To  this  were  added  various  allowances 
which  have  gradually  fallen  into  disuse.  A  full 
record  of  these  and  of  rates  in  general  will  be 
found  in  "  Six  Centuries  of  Work  and  Wages,."  l 

Unskilled  labor  during  the  whole  colonial 
period  —  meaning  by  this  such  labor  as  that  of 
the  men  who  sawed  wood,  dug  ditches,  or 

*  By  Thorold  Rogers. 


During  the  Colonial  Period.         59 

tended  roads,  mixed  mortar  for  the  mason, 
irried  boards  to  the  carpenter,  or  cut  hay  in 
larvest  time  —  brought  a  wage  of  seldom  more 
tan  two  shillings  a  day,  fifteen  shillings  a  week 
taking  a  man  the  envy  of  his  fellows,  while  six 
>r  seven  was  the  utmost  limit  for  women  of  the 
ime  order, 

On    this    pittance  they  lived   as   they  could. 
>and  did  duty  as    carpet    for  the   floor.     The 
rupboard  knew  no  china,  and  the  table  no  glass, 
'oal    and    matches   were    unknown ;   they   had 
jver  seen  a  stove.     The  meals  of  coarsest  food 
;re    eaten    from    wooden     or    pewter    dishes, 
'resh  meat  was  seldom  eaten  more  than  once 
a  week.     A  pound  of  salt  pork  was  tenpence, 
and  corn  three  shillings  a  bushel.     Clothing  was 
as  coarse  as  the  food,  and  imprisonment  for  the 
slightest   debt  was    the    shadow    hanging   over 
every  family  where  illness  or  any  other  cause 
had  hindered  earning.      Boys  and  girls  in  the 
poorer  families  were  employed  by  the  owners 
of  cattle  to  watch  and  keep  them  within  bounds, 
countless    troubles   arising  from  their    roaming 
over    the     unfenced     fields.     Andover,     Mass., 
being  from  the   beginning  of  a -thrifty  turn   of 
mind,  passed,  soon  after  the  founding    of  the 


60  Women   Wage- Earners. 

town,  an    ordinance  which    still    stands    on  the 
town  records  :  — 

"  The  Court  did  herupon  order  and  decree  that  in 
every  towne  the  chosen  men  are  to  take  care  of  such 
as  are  sett  to  keep  cattle,  that  they  may  be  sett  to 
some  other  employment  withall,  as  spinning  upon  the 
rock,  knitting  and  weaving  tape,  &c." 

Spinning-classes  were  also  formed;  the  Gen- 
eral Court  of  Massachusetts  ordering  these  in 
1656,  this  being  part  of  the  general  effort  to 
begin  some  form  of  manufactures.  But  fishing 
to  load  ships,  and  shipbuilding  to  carry  cured 
fish  absorbed  the  energies  of  the  growing  pop- 
ulation ;  and  these  vessels  brought  textiles  and 
manufactured  goods  from  the  cheapest  markets 
everywhere  and  anywhere.1 

These  "  homespun  "  industries  soon  showed 
a  tendency  toward  division.  By  1669  much 
weaving  was  done  outside  the  home  as  custom 
work  ;  and  there  is  record  of  one  Gabriel  Harris 
who  died  in  1684  leaving  four  looms  and  tack- 
lings  and  a  silk  loom  as  part  of  the  small  fortune 
he  had  accumulated  in  this  way.2  His  six  chil- 

1  Weeden's    Economic  and  Social  History  of    New  Eng- 
land, vol.  i.  p.  304. 

2  Caulkins,  p.  273. 


During  the  Colonial  Period.        61 

dren  and  some  hired  women  assisted  in  the 
work.  In  1685  Joseph,  the  son  of  Roger 
Williams,  entered  in  an  account  book  now 
extant,1  a  credit  to  "Sarah  badkuk  [Babcock], 
for  weven  and  coaming  wisted."  This  work 
was,  however,  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  men. 

The  records  of  Pepperell,  Mass.,  show  that 
many  women  saved  their  pin  money,  and  sent 
out  little  ventures  in  the  ships  built  at  home 
and  sailing  to  all  ports  with  fish.  These  ven- 
tures included  articles  of  clothing,  embroideries, 
and  anything  that  it  seemed  might  be  made  to 
yield  some  return.  There  were  also  women  of 
affairs,  some  of  whom  took  charge  of  large 
industries.  Thus  Weeden,  in  his  "Economic 
and  Social  History  of  New  England,"  quotes 
from  an  interesting  memorandum  left  by  Madam 
Martha  Smith,  a  widow  of  St.  George's  Manor, 
Long  Island,2  which  shows  her  practical  ability. 
In  January,  1707,  "  my  company"  killed  a  year- 
ling whale,  and  made  twenty-seven  barrels  of  oil. 
The  record  gives  her  success  for  the  year,  and 
the  tax  she  paid  to  the  authorities  at  New  York, 
—  fifteen  pounds  and  fifteen  shillings,  a  twentieth 
part  of  her  year's  gains. 

1  Rider's  Book  Notes,  vol.  ii.  p.  7. 

2  Boston  News-Letter,  Jan.  25.  1773. 


62  Women    Wage-Earners. 

Other  women  oversaw  the  curing  of  the  fish ; 
but  there  is  no  record  of  the  wage  beyond  the 
general  one  which  for  the  earliest  days  of  the 
colony  gives  rates  for  women  as  from  four  to 
eight  pence  a  day  without  food.  These  rates 
followed  almost  literally  those  of  England  at 
that  time.  Half  of  the  day's  earnings  were 
accounted  an  equivalent  for  diet,  and  contrac- 
tors for  feeding  gangs  in  agriculture,  among 
sailors,  or  wherever  the  system  was  adopted, 
allowed  seven  and  one-half  pence  per  day  a 
head  for  men  and  women  alike.  .  Women  ser- 
vants received  ten  shillings  a  year  wages,  and  an 
allowance  of  four  shillings  additional  for  cloth- 
ing. The  working  day  still  remained  as  fixed 
by  the  law  late  in  the  fifteenth  century,  —  from 
five  A.  M.  to  eight  P.  M.,  from  March  to  Septem- 
ber, with  half  an  hour  for  breakfast,  and  an 
hour  and  a  half  for  dinner. 

These  rates  gradually  altered,  but  for  women 
hardly  at  all,  the  wages  during  the  eighteenth 
century  ranging  from  four  to  six  pounds  a 
year.  The  colony,  however,  gave  opportunities 
unknown  to  the  mother  country,  and  gardening 
and  the  cultivation  of  small  vegetables  seem  to 
have  fallen  much  into  the  hands  of  women.1 

1  Boston  News-Letter,  Jan.  25,  1773. 


During  the  Colonial  Period.        63 

They  had  studied  the  best  methods  for  hot- 
beds, and  grew  early  vegetables  in  these,  the 
first  record  of  this  being  in  1759. 

Gloves  were  by  this  time  made  at  home,  but- 
tons covered,  and  many  small  industries  con- 
ducted, all  connected  with  the  manufacture  and 
making  up  of  clothing.  Patriotic  spinning 
occupied  many;  and  the  "  Boston  News-Letter" 
has  it  that  often  seventy  linen-wheels  were 
employed  at  one  gathering.  The  agitation 
caused  by  the  Stamp  Act  turned  the  attention* 
of  all  women  to  the  production  of  cloth  as  a 
domestic  business.  Worcester,  Mass.,  in  1780 
formed  an  association  for  the  spinning  and 
weaving  of  cotton,  and  a  jenny  was  bought  by 
subscription.1 

Prices  by  this  time  had  risen,  and  in  1776  the 
Andover  records  mention  that  a  Miss  Holt  was 
paid  eighteen  shillings  for  spinning  seventy-two 
skeins,  and  seven  shillings  eleven  pence  for 
weaving  nineteen  yards  of  cloth.  Women  gen- 
erally could  spin  two  skeins  of  linen  yarn  a 
day;  but  there  is  record  of  one,  a  Miss  Eleanor 
Fry  of  East  Greenwich,  R.  I.,  who  spun  seven 
skeins  and  one  knot  in  one  day,  —  an  amount 
1  Barry's  Massachusetts,  vol.  xi.  p.  193. 


64  Women   Wage- Earners. 

sufficient  to  make  twelve  large  lawn  hand- 
kerchiefs such  as  were  then  imported  from 
England. 

Within  four  years  another  Rhode  Island  fam- 
ily of  Newport  are  recorded  in  1768  as  having 
"  manufactured  nine  hundred  and  eighty  yards 
of  woolen  cloth,  besides  two  coverlids  (cover- 
lets), and  two  bed-ticks,  and  all  the  stocking 
yarn  of  the  family." 

The  Council  of  East  Greenwich  fixed  prices 
at  that  time  at  rates  which  seem  purely  arbi- 
trary and  are  certainly  incomprehensible.  Thus 
for  spinning  linen  or  worsted,  five  or  six  skeins 
to  the  pound,  the  price  was  not  to  exceed  six- 
pence per  skein  of  fifteen  knots,  with  finer 
work  in  proportion.  Carded  woollen  yarn  was 
the  same  per  skein.  Weaving  plain  flannel  or 
tow  or  linen  brought  fivepence  per  yard ;  com- 
mon worsted  and  linen,  one  penny  a  yard ; 
and  other  linens  in  like  proportion.1 

Silk  growing  and  weaving  had  been  the  re- 
sult of  the  silkworm  cocoons  sent  over  by 
James  the  First,  who  offered  bounties  of  money 
and  tobacco  for  spun  and  woven  silk  according 

1  Weeden's    Social    and    Economic  History  of  New  Eng- 
land, vol.  ii.  p.  790. 


During  the  Colonial  Period.        65 

to  weight.  Three  women  were  famous  before 
the  Revolution  as  silk  growers  and  weavers, — 
Mrs.  Pinckney,  Grace  Fisher,  and  Susanna 
Wright;  and  at  all  points  where  the  mulberry- 
tree  was  indigenous  or  could  be  made  to  grow, 
fortune  was  regarded  as  assured.  The  project 
failed  ;  but  the  efforts  then  made  paved  the  way 
for  present  experiment,  and  even  better  success 
than  that  already  attained. 

The  manufacture  of  straw  goods,  amounting 
now  to  many  million  dollars  yearly,  owes  its 
origin  to  a  woman,  —  Miss  Betsey  Metcalf,  who 
in  1789,  when  hardly  more  than  a  child,  dis- 
covered the  secret  of  bleaching  and  braiding 
the  meadow  grass  of  Dedham,  her  native  town. 
Others  were  taught,  and  a  regular  business 
of  supplying  the  want  for  summer  hats  and 
bonnets  was  organized,  and  has  grown  to  its 
present  large  proportions. 

At  this  period  women  widowed  by  the  for- 
tune of  war  or  forced  by  the  absence  of  all  the 
male  members  of  the  family  on  the  field,  were 
often  found  in  business.  The  mother  of 
Thomas  Perkins  of  Salem,  one  of  the  great 
American  merchants,  left  widowed  in  1778,  took 
her  husband's  place  in  the  counting-house, 
5 


66  Women    Wage-Earners. 

managed  business,  despatched  ships,  sold  mer- 
chandise, wrote  letters,  all  with  such  command- 
ing energy  that  the  solid  Hollanders  wrote  to 
her  as  to  a  man.1  The  record  of  one  day's 
work  of  Mary  Moody  Emerson,  born  in  1777, 
reads : — 

"  Rose  before  light  every  morn ;  read  Butler's 
Analogy ;  commented  on  the  Scriptures ;  read  in 
a  little  book  Cicero's  Letters  —  a  few  touches  of 
Shakespeare  —  washed,  carded,  cleaned  house  and 
baked." 2 

There  is  another  woman  no  less  busy,  a 
member  of  the  distinguished  Nott  family,  who 
did  work  in  her  house  and  helped  her  boys  in 
the  fields.  In  midwinter,  with  neither  money 
nor  wool  in  the  house,  one  of  the  boys  required 
a  new  suit.  The  mother  sheared  the  half- 
grown  fleece  from  a  sheep,  and  in  a  week  had 
spun,  wove,  and  made  it  into  clothing,  the  sheep 
being  protected  from  cold  by  a  wrappage  made 
of  braided  straw. 

Details  like  this  would  be  out  of  place  here 
did  they  not  serve  to  accent  the  fact  of  the 

1  Proceedings   of    the   Massachusetts    Historical    Society, 
1798-1835,  p.  353. 

2  Atlantic  Monthly,  December,  1883,  p.  773. 


During  the  Colonial  Period.         67 

concentration  of  industries  under  the  home 
roof,  and  the  necessity  that  existed  for  this. 
But  a  change  was  near  at  hand,  and  it  dates 
from  the  first  bale  of  cotton  grown  in  the 
country. 

In  the  early  years  of  the  eighteenth  century 
not  a  manufacturing  town  existed  in  New  Eng- 
land, and  for  the  whole  country  it  was  much 
the  same.  A  few  paper-mills  turned  out  paper 
hardly  better  in  quality  than  that  which  comes 
to  us  to-day  about  our  grocery  packages.  In 
a  foundry  or  two-  iron  was  melted  into  pigs  or 
beaten  into  bars  and  nails.  Cocked  hats  and 
felts  were  made  in  one  factory.  Cotton  was 
hardly  known.1  De  Bow,  in  his  "  Industrial 
Resources  of  the  United  States,"  tells  us  that 
a  little  had  been  sent  to  Liverpool  just  before 
the  battle  of  Lexington  ;  but  linen  took  the 
place  of  all  cotton  fabrics,  and  was  spun  at 
every  hearth  in  New  England. 

In  the  eight  bales  of  cotton,  grown  on  a 
Georgia  plantation,  sent  over  to  Liverpool  in 
1784,  and  seized  at  the  Custom  House  on  the 
ground  that  so  much  cotton  could  not  be  pro- 

1  For  further  detail,  see  McMaster's  History  of  the  United 
States,  vol.  i.  p.  62. 


68; :  Women  ,  Wage-Earners. 


: 


duced  in  America,  but  must  come  from  some 
foreign  country,  lay  the  seed  of  a  new  move- 
ment in  labor,  in  which,  from  the  beginning, 
women  have  taken  larger  part  than  men.  By 
1800  cotton  had  proved  itself  a  staple  for  the 
Southern  States,  and  even  the  second  war  with 
England  hardly  hindered  the  planters.  In 
1791  two  million  pounds  had  been  raised  ;  in 
1804  forty-eight  million;  the  invention  of  the 
cotton-gin,  in  1793,  stimulating  to  the  utmost 
the  enthusiasm  of  the  South  over  this  new  road 
to  fortune. 

It  is  with  the  birth  of  the  cotton  industry  that 
the  work  and  wages  of  women  begin  to  take 
coherent  shape ;  and  the  history  of  the  new 
occupation  divides  itself  roughly  into  three 
periods.  The  first  includes  the  ten  or  fifteen 
years  prior  to  1790,  and  may  be  called  the 
experimental  period  ;  the  second  covers  the 
time  from  1790  to  1811,  in  which  the  spinning- 
system  was  established  and  perfected;  and  the 
third  the  years  immediately  following  1814,  in 
which  came  the  introduction  of  the  power  loom 
and  the  growth  of  the  modern  factory  system. 

The  experimental  stage  found  an  enthusiastic 
worker  in  the  person  of  Tench  Coxe,  known 


During 


often  as  the  "  Father  of 
whose  interest  in  the  beginning  was  philan- 
thropic rather  than  commercial.  Bent  upon 
employment  for  idle  and  destitute  workmen,  he 
exhibited  in  Philadelphia  in  1775  the  first  spin- 
ning-jenny seen  in  America.  He  had  already 
incorporated  the  "  United  Company  of  Phila- 
delphia for  Promoting  American  Manufactures," 
and  they  at  once  secured  the  machine  and  made 
ready  to  operate  it.  Four  hundred  women 
were  very  speedily  at  work  at  hand  spinning 
and  weaving;  and  though  the  company  pres- 
ently turned  its  attention  to  woollen  fabrics,  a 
large  proportion  of  women  was  still  employed. 

Till  the  building  of  the  great  mill  at  Wal- 
tham,  Mass.,  in  which  every  form  of  the  im- 
proved machinery  found  place,  spinning  was 
the  only  work  of  the  factories.  All  the  yarn 
was  sent  out  among  the  farmers  to  be  woven 
into  cloth,  the  current  prices  paid  for  this 
being  from  six  to  twelve  cents  a  yard.  Amer- 
ican cotton  was  poor,  and  the  product  of  a 
quality  inferior  to  the  coarsest  and  heaviest 
unbleached  of  to-day;  but  experiment  soon 
altered  all  this. 

To  manufacture  the  raw  product  in  this  coun- 


70  Women   Wage- Earners. 

try  was  a  necessity.  For  England  this  had 
begun  in  1786  ;  but  she  guarded  so  jealously  all 
inventions  bearing  upon  it  that  none  found 
their  way  to  us.  Our  machinery  was  therefore 
of  the  most  imperfect  order,  the  work  chiefly 
of  two  young  Scotch  mechanics.  In  1788  a 
company  was  formed  at  Providence,  R.  I.,  for 
making  "  homespun  cloth,"  their  machinery 
being  made  in  part  from  drawings  from  Eng- 
lish models.  Carding  and  roving  were  all  done 
by  hand  labor  ;  and  the  spinning-frame,  with 
thirty-two  spindles,  differed  little  from  a  com- 
mon jenny,  and  was  worked  by  a  crank  turned 
by  hand. 

Even  at  this  stage  England  was  determined 
that  America  should  have  neither  machinery 
nor  tools,  and  still  held  to  the  act  passed  in 
1789  which  enforced  a  penalty  of  five  hundred 
pounds  for  any  one  who  exported,  or  tried  to 
export,  "  blocks,  plates,  engines,  tools,  or  uten- 
sils used  in  or  which  are  proper  for  the  prepar- 
ing or  finishing  of  the  calico,  cotton,  muslin,  or 
linen  printing  manufacture,  or  any  part  thereof." 

Nothing  could  have  more  stimulated  Ameri- 
can invention  ;  but  there  were  many  struggles 
before  the  thought  finally  came  to  all  interested, 


During  the  Colonial  Period.         71 

that  it  might  be  possible  to  condense  the  whole 
operation  with  all  its  details  under  one  roof,  — 
a  project  soon  carried  out. 

Thus  far  all  had  been  tentative;  but  the 
building  in  1790  at  Pawtucket,  R.  I.,  of  the 
first  large  factory  with  improved  machinery 
gave  the  industry  permanent  place.  Another 
mill  was  erected  in  the  same  State  in  1795,  and 
two  more  in  Massachusetts  in  1802  and  1803. 
In  the  three  succeeding  years  ten  more  were 
built  in  Rhode  Island  and  one  in  Connecticut, 
altogether  fifteen  in  number,  working  about 
8,000  spindles  and  producing  in  a  year  some 
300,000  pounds  of  yarn.  At  the  end  of  the 
year  1809  eighty-seven  additional  mills  had 
been  put  up,  making  about  80,000  spindles  in 
operation.  Eight  hundred  spindles  employed 
forty  persons,  —  five  men  and  thirty-five  women 
and  children. 

The  first  authoritative  record  as  to  the  pro- 
gress of  the  manufacture,  numbers  employed, 
etc.,  was  made  in  a  report  to  the  House  of 
Representatives  in  the  spring  session  of  1816. 
In  the  previous  year  90,000  bales  had  been 
manufactured  as  against  1,000  in  1800.  The 
capital  invested  was  $40,000,  and  the  relative 


72  Women    Wage- Earners. 

number  of  males  and  females  employed  is  also 
recorded,  — 

Males  employed  from  the  age  of  17  and  upward     10,000 

Women  and  female  children 66,000 

Boys  under  17  years  of  age 24,000 

For  these  women  spinning  was  the  only  work. 
Hand-looms  still  did  all  the  weaving,  nor  was  it 
possible  to  obtain  any  plan  of  the  power  looms, 
—  then  in  use  in  England,  and  a  recent  invention. 
Another  mill  had  been  built  in  1795;  and  thus 
the  first  definite  and  profitable  occupation  for 
women  in  this  country  dates  back  to  the  close 
of  the  eighteenth  and  the  early  years  of  the 
nineteenth  century,  the  history  of  its  phases 
having  been  written  by  Tench  Coxe.  The  vil- 
lage tailoress  had  long  gone  from  house  to 
house,  earning  in  the  beginning  but  a  shilling 
a  day,  and  this  sometimes  paid  in  kind ;  and 
in  towns  a  dressmaker  or  milliner  was  secure 
of  a  livelihood.  But  work  for  the  many  was 
unknown  outside  of  household  life  ;  and  thus 
wage  rates  vary  with  locality,  and  are  in  most 
cases  inferential  rather  than  matter  of  record. 

Cotton  would  seem,  from  the  beginning  of 
manufacturing  interests,  to  have  monopolized 
New  England ;  but  other  industries  had  been 


During  the  Colonial  Period.        73 

very  early  suggested.  In  May,  1640,  the  Gen- 
eral Court  of  Massachusetts  made  an  order  for 
the  encouragement  by  bounties  of  the  manu- 
facture of  linen  and  woollen  as  well  as  cotton. 
In  1638  a  company  of  Yorkshiremen  came  over 
and  settled  in  Rowley,  Mass.,  where  they  built 
the  first  fulling-mill  in  the  United  States.  Fus- 
tians and  the  ordinary  homespun  cloth  were 
woven ;  but  few  women  were  employed,  the  work 
being  far  heavier  than  the  weaving  of  cotton. 
It  was  hoped  that  broadcloths  as  good  as  those 
imported  could  be  made ;  but  American  wool 
proved  less  susceptible  of  high  finish,  though 
of  better  wearing  quality  than  the  English. 
Various  grades  of  cloth,  with  shawls,  were  manu- 
factured; but  the  growth  of  the  industry  was 
slow,  and  constantly  hampered  by  heavy  duties 
and  much  interference.  In  1770  the  entire 
graduating  class  at  Harvard  College  were 
dressed  in  black  broadcloth  made  in  this  coun- 
try, the  weaving  of  which  had  been  done  in 
families.  Yarn  was  sent  to  these  after  the  wool 
had  been  made  ready  in  the  mills,  and  the 
census  of  the  United  States  for  1810  gives 
the  number  of  yards  woven  in  this  way  as 
9,528,266. 


74  Women   Wage-Earners. 

What  proportion  of  women  were  engaged 
we  have  no  means  of  knowing;  but  the  census 
of  1860  shows  that  New  England  had  65  per 
cent  of  the  total  number  then  at  work.  The 
cotton  manufacture  had  but  38  per  cent  of 
males  as  against  62  per  cent  of  females ;  while  in 
woollen,  males  were  60  per  cent.  In  New  Eng- 
land 10,743  women  were  in  woollen-mills;  in 
the  Middle  States,  4,540;  and  in  the  South,  689, 
For  the  West  no  returns  are  given.  Many 
more  would  be  included  in  the  Southern  returns 
were  it  not  that  most  of  the  weaving  is  still  a 
home  industry,  this  resulting  from  the  sparse- 
ness  and  scattered  nature  of  the  population. 

Knitting  formed  one  of  the  earliest  means 
of  earning  for  women,  the  demand  for  hose 
of  every  description  being  beyond  the  power 
of  the  family  to  supply.  Knitting-machines  of 
various  orders  were  in  use  on  the  Continent, 
and  had  been  brought  into  England ;  but  any 
attempt  to  employ  them  here  was  for  a  long 
time  unsuccessful.  Yarn  was  spun  especially 
for  this  purpose,  usually  with  a  double  thread, 
and  in  the  year  1698  Martha's  Vineyard  ex- 
ported 9,000  pairs.  The  German  and  English 
settlers  of  Pennsylvania  brought  many  hand- 


During  the  Colonial  Period.         75 

knitting  machines  with  them,  and  were  rivals  of 
New  England ;  but  Virginia  led,  and  the  cen- 
sus of  1810  credits  her  with  over  half  of  the 
hand-knit  pairs  exported,  Connecticut  coming 
next.  In  Pennsylvania  the  women  earned  half 
a  crown  a  pair  for  the  long  hose,  and  this  in 
the  opening  of  the  eighteenth  century ;  and  the 
State  still  retains  it  as  a  household  industry. 
The  percentage  for  the  United  States  of  women 
engaged  in  it  by  the  last  census  is  61,100. 

The  early  stages  of  the  industry  employed 
very  few  women,  the  processes  involving  too 
heavy  labor;  and  out  of  159  workers  in  the 
first  mills,  only  eight  were  women,  these  being 
employed  in  carding  and  fulling.  According 
to  our  last  census,  10,743  are  employed  in  New 
England  mills  alone ;  but  the  proportion  re- 
mains far  below  that  of  the  cotton-mills,  and 
at  many  points  in  the  South  and  remote  terri- 
tories it  is  still  a  household  industry  in  which 
all  share. 

Until  well  on  in  the  nineteenth  century  the 
factory  and  the  domestic  system  were  still  inter- 
woven, nor  had  there  been  intelligent  definition 
of  the  actual  meaning  of  this  system  until  Ure 
formulated  one :  — 


76  Women   Wage- Earners. 

"The  factory  system  in  technology  is  simply  the 
combined  operation  of  many  orders  of  work-people 
in  tending  with  assiduous  skill  a  series  of  productive 
machines,  continuously  impelled  by  a  central  power."  1 

A  central  power  controlling  an  army  of 
workers  had  been  the  dream  of  all  mechani- 
cians ;  and  Ure  formulated  this  also :  — 

"  It  is  the  idea  of  a  vast  automaton,  composed  of 
various  mechanical-  and  intellectual  organs,  acting  in 
uninterrupted  concert  for  the  production  of  a  com- 
mon object,  —  all  of  them  being  subordinate  to  a 
self- regulated  moving  force." 

This  was  the  result  brought  about  by  the 
gradual  extension  of  the  factory  system.  The 
objections  made  from  the  beginning,  and  still 
made,  with  such  answers  as  experience  has  sug- 
gested, find  place  later  on. 

1  Philosophy  of  Manufactures,  by  Andrew  Ure,  M.D.,  p.  13. 


Aspects  of  Factory  Labor.          77 


III. 


EARLY  ASPECTS   OF  FACTORY  LABOR  FOR 
WOMEN. 

1ACK  not  only  of  machinery  but  of  any 
-*  facilities  for  its  manufacture  hampered 
and  delayed  the  progress  of  the  factory  move- 
ment in  the  United  States  ;  but  these  difficul- 
ties were  at  last  overcome,  and  in  1813  Waltham, 
Mass.,  saw  what  is  probably  the  first  factory  in 
the  world  that  combined  under  one  roof  every 
process  for  converting  raw  cotton  into  finished 
cloth. 

Manufacturing,  even  when  most  hampered  by 
the  burden  of  taxation  then  imposed  and  the 
heavy  duties  and  other  restrictions  following  the 
long  war,  began  under  happier  conditions  than 
have  ever  been  known  elsewhere.  Unskilled 
labor  had  smallest  place,  and  of  this  class  New 
England  had  for  long  next  to  no  knowledge. 
Her  workers  in  the  beginning  were  recruited 
from  the  outlying  country  ;  and  the  women  and 


78  Women   Wage- Earners. 

girls  who  flocked  into  Lowell,  as  in  the  earliest 
years  they  had  flocked  into  Pawtucket,  were  New- 
Englanders  by  birth  and  training.  This  meant 
not  only  quickness  and  deftness  of  handling, 
but  the  conscientious  filling  of  every  hour  with 
the  utmost  work  it  could  be  made  to  hold. 

The  life  of  the  Lowell  factory-girls  has  full 
record  in  the  little  magazine  called  the  "  Lowell 
Offering,"  published  by  them  for  many  years. 
Lucy  Larcom  has  also  lately  given  her  "  Recol- 
lections," one  of  the  most  valuable  and  charac- 
teristic pictures  of  the  life  from  year  to  year, 
and  it  tallies  with  the  summary  made  by  Dick- 
ens in  his  "  American  Notes."  Beginning  as  a 
child  of  eleven,  whose  business  was  simply  to 
change  bobbins,  she  received  a  wage  of  one 
dollar  a  week,  with  one  dollar  and  a  quarter  for 
board,  the  allowance  made  by  most  of  the  cor- 
porations while  the  system  of  boarding-houses 
in  connection  with  the  factories  lasted.  The 
oldest  corporation,  known  as  the  Merrimack, 
introduced  this  system,  and  for  many  years 
retained  oversight  of  all  in  its  employ.  With 
increasing  competition  and  the  increase  of  the 
foreign  element,  alteration  of  methods  began, 
and  Lowell  lost  its  characteristic  features. 


Aspects  of  Factory  Labor.  79 

In  the  beginning  the  conditions  of  factory 
labor  for  New  England  at  the  point  where  work 
was  initiated,  were,  as  compared  with  those  of 
England,  almost  idyllic.  The  Lowell  workers 
came  from  New  England  farms,  many  of  them 
for  the  sake  of  being  near  libraries  and  schools, 
and  thus  securing  larger  opportunities  for  self- 
culture. 

The  agricultural  class  then  outranked  mer- 
chants and  mechanics.  There  were  no  class 
distinctions,  and  the  workers  shared  in  the  best 
social  life  of  Lowell.  The  factory  was  an  epi- 
sode rather  than  a  career  ;  and  the  buildings 
themselves  were  kept  as  clean  as  the  nature  of 
the  work  admitted,  growing  plants  filling  the 
windows,  and  the  swift-flowing  Merrimac  turn- 
ing the  wheels. 

In  1841-  the  girls  had  to  their  credit  in  the 
savings-banks  established  by  the  corporations 
over  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  ;  and  many 
of  them  shared  their  earnings  with  brothers  who 
sought  a  college  education,  or  lifted  the  mort- 
gages on  the  home  farms.  At  the  International 
Council  of  Women,  held  in  Washington  in  1888, 
Mrs.  H.  H.  Robinson,  after  telling  how  she 
entered  the  Lowell  Mills  as  a  "  doffer,"  when  a 


8o  Women   Wage-Earners. 

child,  gave  a  brilliant  description  of  the  intel- 
lectual life  and  interests  of  the  workers.  She 
remained  in  the  mill  till  married,  and  said :  "  I 
consider  the  Lowell  Mills  as  my  alma  mater, 
and  am  as  proud  of  them  as  most  girls  of  the 
colleges  in  which  they  have  been  educated." 

With  the  growth  of  the  factory  system  under 
very  different  conditions  from  that  of  Lowell, 
there  were  as  different  results.  Factories  had 
risen,  at  every  available  point  in  New  Eng- 
land, all  of  them  thronged  by  women  and 
girls.  But  great  cities  were  still  unknown ; 
and  the  first  census,  that  for  1790,  showed 
that  hardly  four  per  cent  of  the  people  were 
in  them.  The  tide  set  toward  the  factory 
towns  as  strongly  as  it  now  does  toward 
the  cities,  though  factory  labor  for  the  most 
part  was  of  almost  incredible  severity.  The 
length  of  a  day's  labor  varied  from  twelve  to 
fifteen  hours,  the  mills  of  New  England  running 
generally  thirteen  hours  a  day  the  year  round. 
Several  mills  are  on  record,  the  day  in  one  of 
which  was  fourteen  hours,  and  in  the  other 
fifteen  hours  and  ten  minutes,  this  latter  being 
the  Eagle  Mill  at  Griswold,  Conn. ;  and  previous 
to  1858  there  were  many  others  where  hours 


Aspects  of  Factory  Labor.          81 

were  equally  long.  Work  began  at  five  in  the 
morning,  or  at  some  points  a  little  later ;  and 
there  is  a  known  instance  of  a  mill  in  Paterson, 
N.  J.,  in  which  women  and  children  were  re- 
quired to  be  at  work  by  half-past  four  in  the 
morning. 

In  most  of  the  New  England  factories,  the 
operatives  were  taxed  for  the  support  of  re- 
ligion. The  Lowell  Company  dismissed  them 
if  often  absent  from  church,  and  their  lives 
without  and  within  the  factory  were  regulated 
as  minutely  as  if  in  the  cloister.  Women  and 
children  were  urged  on  by  the  cowhide;  and 
the  first  inspection  of  the  factories,  notably  in 
Connecticut,  revealed  a  state  of  things  hardly 
less  harrowing  than  that  which  had  brought 
about  the  passage  of  the  first  Factory  Acts  in 
England.  At  the  same  time  wages  were  very 
inadequate.  In  twelve  hours'  daily  labor  the 
weavers  of  Baltimore  were  able  to  earn  from 
sixty  to  seventy  cents  a  day,  the  wage  of  the 
women  being  half  or  a  third  this  amount ;  and 
they  declared  it  not  enough  to  pay  the  expenses 
of  schooling  for  the  children. 

With  the  increase  of  production  and  the 
growing  competition  of  manufacturers,  wages 
6 


82  Women   Wage- Earners. 

were  steadily  forced  downward.  Less  and  less 
attention  was  paid  to  the  comfort  or  well-being 
of  the  operatives,  and  many  factories  were  unfit 
working-places  for  human  beings.  Overseers, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  keep  up  the  utmost  rate 
of  speed,  flogged  children  brutally  ;  and  the 
treatment  was  so  barbarous  that  a  boy  of  twelve 
at  Mendon,  Mass.,  drowned  himself  to  escape 
factory  labor.  Windows  were  often  nailed  down, 
and  their  raising  forbidden  even  in  the  hottest 
weather. 

The  most  formidable  and  trustworthy  arraign- 
ment of  these  conditions  is  to  be  found  in  a 
pamphlet  printed  in  1834,  the  full  title  of  which 
is  as  follows :  "  An  Address  to  the  Working- 
men  of  New  England,  on  the  State  of  Education, 
and  on  the  Condition  of  the  Producing  Classes 
in  Europe  and  America." 

The  author  of  this  pamphlet,  a  mechanic  of 
some  education,  stirred  to  the  heart  by  the 
abuses  he  saw,  made  an  exhaustive  examination 
of  the  New  England  mills  ;  and  he  gives  many 
details  of  the  hours  of  labor,  the  wages  of 
employees,  and  the  abuses  of  power  which  he 
found  everywhere  among  unscrupulous  manu- 
facturers. The  principal  value  of  his  work  lies 


Aspects  of  Factory  Labor.  83 

in  this,  and  in  his  reprint  of  original  documents 
like  the  "  General  Rules  of  the  Lowell  Manu- 
facturing Company,"  and  "  The  Conditions  on 
which  Help  is  hired  by  the  Cocheco  Manu- 
facturing Company,  Dover,  N.  H."  These 
conditions  were  so  oppressive  that  in  several 
cases  revolt  took  place,  —  usually  unsuccessful, 
as  no  organization  existed  among  the  women, 
and  they  were  powerless  to  effect  any  marked 
change  for  the  better. 

By  1835  chiefly  the  poorer  order  of  workers 
filled  the  mills,  but  even  skilled  labor  made 
constant  complaint  of  cruelties  and  injustices. 
Not  only  were  there  distressing  cases  of  cruelty 
to  children,  but  outrage  of  every  kind  had  been 
found  to  exist  among  the  women  workers,  whose 
wage  had  been  lowered  till  nearly  at  the  point 
known  to-day  as  the  subsistence  point.  Parents 
then,  as  now,  gave  false  returns  of  age,  and 
caught  greedily  at  the  prospect  of  any  earning 
by  their  children ;  and  any  specific  enactments 
as  to  schooling,  etc.,  were  still  delayed. 

These  evils  were  not  confined  to  New  England, 
but  existed  at  every  point  where  manufacturing 
was  carried  on.  But  New  England  was  first  to 
decide  on  the  necessity  for  some  organized 


84  Women    Wage-Earners. 

remonstrance  and  resistance,  and  the  first  meet- 
ing to  this  end  was  held  in  February,  1831.  Of 
this  there  is  no  record ;  but  the  second,  held  in 
September,  1832,  is  given  in  the  first  "Report 
of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Labor,"  issued 
in  1870.  Boston  sent  thirty  delegates,  and  the 
workingmen  of  New  York  City  addressed  a 
letter  to  the  workers  of  the  United  States,  show- 
ing that  the  same  causes  of  unrest  and  agitation 
existed  at  all  points. 

"  These  evils,"  they  said,  "  arise  from  the 
moral  obliquity  of  the  fastidious,  and  the  cupid- 
ity of  the  avaricious.  They  consist  in  an 
illiberal  opinion  of  the  worth  and  rights  of  the 
laboring  classes,  an  unjust  estimation  of  their 
moral,  physical,  and  intellectual  powers,  and 
unwise  misapprehension  of  the  effects  which 
would  result  from  the  cultivation  of  their  minds 
and  the  improvement  of  their  condition,  and  an 
avaricious  propensity  to  avail  of  their  laborious 
services,  at  the  lowest  possible  rate  of  wages 
for  which  they  can  be  induced  to  work." 

The  evils  protested  against  here  did  not 
lessen  as  time  went  on.  Irish  emigration  had 
begun  in  1836,  and  speedily  drove  out  Ameri- 
can labor,  which  was  in  any  case  insufficient 


Aspects  of  Factory  Labor.          85 

for  the  need.  A  lowered  wage  was  the  immedi- 
ate consequence,  the  foreigner  having  no  stand- 
ard of  living  that  included  more  than  bare 
necessaries.  At  this  distance  from  the  struggle 
it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  new  life  was  educa- 
tional for  the  emigrant,  and  also  forced  the 
American  worker  into  new  and  often  broader 
channels.  But  for  those  involved  such  per- 
ception was  impossible,  and  the  new-comers 
were  regarded  with  something  like  hatred. 
English  and  German  emigrants  followed,  to 
give  place  in  their  turn  to  the  French-Canadian, 
who  at  present  in  great  degree  monopolizes  the 
mills. 

In  the  beginning  little  or  no  effort  was  made 
toward  healthful  conditions  of  work  and  life, 
or  more  than  the  merest  hint  of  education. 
England,  in  which  far  worse  conditions  had 
existed,  had,  early  in  the  century,  seen  the 
necessity  of  remedial  legislation.  But  though 
the  first  English  Factory  Act  was  passed  in 
1802,  it  was  not  till  1844  that  women  and 
children  were  brought  under  its  provisions. 
The  first  one,  known  as  the  Health  and  Morals 
Act,  was  the  result  of  the  discovery  made  first 
by  voluntary,  then  by  appointed  inspectors,  that 


86  Women   Wage-Earners. 

neither  health  nor  morals  remained  for  factory- 
workers,  and  that  hopeless  deterioration  would 
result  unless  government  interfered  at  once. 
Hideous  epidemic  diseases,  an  extinction  of 
any  small  natural  endowment  of  moral  sense, 
and  a  daily  life  far  below  that  of  the  brutes,  had 
showed  themselves  as  industries  and  the  attend- 
ant competition  developed;  and  the  story  in  all 
its  horror  may  be  read  in  English  Bluebooks 
and  the  record  of  government  inspectors,  and 
made  accessible  in  the  works  of  GifTen, 
Toynbee,  Engels,  and  other  names  identified 
with  reform. 

The  bearing  of  these  acts  upon  legislation  in 
our  country  is  so  strong  that  a  summary  of  the 
chief  points  must  find  mention  here.  In  the 
Act  of  1802  the  hours  of  work,  which  had  been 
from  fourteen  to  sixteen  hours  a  day,  were  fixed 
at  twelve.  All  factories  were  required  to  be 
frequently  whitewashed,  and  to  have  a  sufficient 
number  of  windows,  though  these  provisions 
applied  only  to  apprenticed  operatives.  In 
1819  an  act  forbade  the  employment  of  any 
child  under  nine  years  of  age,  and  in  1825 
Saturday  was  made  a  half-holiday.  Night  work 
was  forbidden  in  1831,  and  for  all  under  eigh- 


Aspects  of  Factory  Labor.  87 

teen  the  working  day  was  made  twelve  hours, 
with  nine  for  Saturday. 

By  1847  public  opinion  demanded  still  more 
change  for  the  better,  and  the  day  was  made 
ten  hours  for  working  women  and  young  per- 
sons between  thirteen  and  eighteen  years,  though 
they  were  allowed  to  work  between  six  A.  M. 
and  six  P.  M.,  with  an  allowance  of  an  hour  and 
a  half  at  mealtime.  Our  own  evils,  while  in 
many  points  far  less,  still  were  in  the  same 
direction.  Here  and  there  a  like  evasion  of 
responsibility  and  of  the  provisions  of  the  law 
was  to  be  found.  Even  when  a  corps  of 
inspectors  were  appointed,  they  were  bribed, 
hoodwinked,  and  generally  put  off  the  track, 
while  the  provisions  in  regard  to  the  shielding 
of  dangerous  machinery,  cleanliness,  etc.,  were 
ignored  by  every  possible  method.  Were  law 
obeyed  and  its  provisions  thoroughly  carried 
out,  English  factory  operatives  would  be  better 
protected  than  those  of  any  other  country,  ' 
America  not  accepted.  Sanitary  conditions  are 
required  to  be  good.  All  factories  are  to  be 
kept  clean,  as  any  effluvia  arising  from  closets, 
etc.,  renders  the  owners  liable  to  a  fine.  The 
generation  of  gas,  dust,  etc.,  must  be  neutral- 


88  Women   Wage- Earners. 

ized  by  the  inventions  for  this  purpose,  so  that 
operatives  may  not  be  harmed  thereby.  Any 
manufacturer  allowing  machinery  to  remain 
unprotected  is  to  be  prosecuted  ;  and  there  are 
minute  regulations  forbidding  any  child  or 
young  person  to  clean  or  walk  between  the 
fixed  and  traversing  part  of  any  self-acting 
machine  while  in  motion.  At  least  two  hours 
must  be  allowed  for  meals,  nor  are  these  to 
be  taken  in  any  room  where  manufacturing  is 
going  on. 

For  this  country  such  provisions  were  long 
delayed,  nor  have  we  even  now  the  necessary 
regulations  as  to  the  protection  of  machinery. 
In  the  early  days,  though  many  mills  were  built 
by  men  who  sought  honestly  to  provide  their 
employees  with  as  many  alleviations  as  the 
nature  of  the  work  admitted,  many  more  were 
absolutely  blind  to  anything  but  their  own 
interest.  With  the  disabilities  resulting  we  are 
to  deal  at  another  point.  It  is  sufficient  to 
say  here,  that  the  struggle  for  factory-workers 
became  more  and  more  severe,  and  has 
remained  so  to  the  present  day. 

The  increase  of  women  workers  in  this  field 
had  been  steady.  In  1865  women  operatives 


Aspects  of  Factory  Labor.          89 


in  the  factories  of  Massachusetts  were  32,239, 
or  nineteen  per  cent  of  men  operatives.  In  1875 
they  were  83,207,  or  twenty-six  per  cent ;  and  the 
increase  since  that  date  has  been  in  like  propor- 
tion. From  the  time  of  their  first  employment  in 
mills  the  increase  has  been  on  themselves  over 
three  hundred  per  cent.  In  Massachusetts  mills 
women  and  children  are  from  two  thirds  to  five 
sixths  of  all  employed,  and  the  proportion  in 
all  the  manufacturing  portions  of  New  England 
is  nearly  the  same. 

In  judging  the  factory  system  as  a  whole,  it 
is  necessary  to  glance  at  the  conditions  of  home 
work  preceding  it.  These  are  given  in  full 
detail  in  historical  and  economical  treatises, 
notably  in  Lecky's  "  History  of  the  Eighteenth 
Century,"  and  in  Dr.  Kay's  "  Moral  and  Physical 
Condition  of  the  Working  Classes."  A  list  of  the 
more  important  authorities  on  the  subject  will  be 
found  in  the  general  bibliography  at  the  end. 

The  conditions  that  prevailed  in  other  coun- 
tries were  less  strenuous  with  us,  but  the  same 
objections  to  the  domestic  system  held  good  at 
many  points.  In  weaving,  the  looms  occupied 
large  part  of  the  family  living  space,  and  over- 
crowding and  all  its  evils  were  inevitable. 


9O  Women    Wage-Earners. 

Drunkenness  was  more  common,  as  well  as  the 
stealing  of  materials  by  dishonest  workers. 
Time  was  lost  in  going  for  material  and  in 
returning  it,  and  only  half  as  much  was  accom- 
plished. Homes  were  uncared  for  and  often 
filthy,  and  the  work  was  done  in  half-lighted, 
airless  rooms. 

These  conditions  are  often  reproduced  in  part 
even  to-day  in  buildings  not  adapted  to  their 
present  use  ;  but  as  a  whole  it  is  certain  that 
the  homes  of  factory-workers  are  cleaner,  that 
regulation  has  proved  beneficial,  that  light  and 
air  are  furnished  in  better  measure,  and  that 
overcrowding  has  become  impossible.  This 
applies  only  to  textile  manufactures,  where 
machines  must  have  room. 

In  an  admirable  chapter  on  the  "  Factory 
System,"  prepared  by  Colonel  Carroll  D. 
Wright  for  the  Tenth  Census  of  the  United 
States,  he  takes  up  in  detail  the  objections 
urged  against  it.  These  are  as  follows :  — 

"  A.  The  factory  system  necessitates  the  employ- 
ment of  women  and  children  to  an  injurious  extent, 
and  consequently  its  tendency  is  to  destroy  family 
life  and  ties  and  domestic  habits,  and  ultimately  the 
home. 


Aspects  of  Factory  Labor.  91 


B.  Factory  employments  are  injurious    to  health. 

C.  The  factory  system  is  productive  of  intemper- 
ance, unthrift,  and  poverty. 

D.  It  feeds  prostitution,  and  swells  the  criminal  list. 

E.  It  tends  to  intellectual  degeneracy. 

Under  "  A "  there  is  small  defence  to  be 
made.  The  employment  of  married  women  is 
fruitful  of  evil,  and  the  proportion  of  these  in 
Massachusetts  is  23.8  per  cent.  Wherever  this 
per  cent  is  high,  infant  mortality  is  very  great, 
being  23.5  per  cent  for  Massachusetts  and  19 
per  cent  for  Connecticut  and  New  Hampshire. 
The  "  Labor  Bureau  Reports  "  for  New  Jersey 
treat  the  subject  in  detail,  and  are  strongly 
opposed  to  the  employment  of  mothers  of 
young  children  outside  the  home;  and  the 
conclusion  is  the  same  at  other  points. 

In  the  matter  of  general  injury  to  health, 
under  "  B,"  it  is  stated  that  many  factories  are 
far  better  ventilated  and  lighted  than  the  homes 
of  the  operatives.  Ignorant  employees  cannot 
be  impressed  with  the  need  of  care  on  these 
points,  and  the  air  in  their  homes  is  foul  and 
productive  of  disease.  A  cotton-mill  is  often 
better  ventilated  than  a  court-room  or  a  lecture- 
room.  A  well-built  factory  allows  not  less  than 


92  Women   Wage- Earners. 

six  hundred  cubic  feet  of  air  space  to  a  person, 
thirty  to  sixty  cubic  feet  a  minute  being  re- 
quired. Ranke,  in  his  "  Elements  of  Physiology," 
makes  it  thirty-five  a  minute. 

The  homes  of  operatives  have  steadily  im- 
proved in  character ;  and  wherever  -there  is  an 
intelligent  class  of  operatives,  regulations  are 
obeyed,  and  sanitary  conditions  are  fair  and 
often  perfect,  while  the  tendency  is  toward  more 
and  more  care  in  every  respect.  Operatives' 
homes  are  often  better  guarded  against  sanitary 
evils  than  those  of  farmers  or  the  ordinary 
laborer. 

Under  "  C  "  it  is  shown  conclusively  that  the 
factory  has  diminished  intemperance,  —  Rey- 
baud's  "  History  of  the  Factory  Movement  "  giv- 
ing full  statistics  on  this  point,  as  well  as  in  regard 
to  the  growth  of  banks  and  benefit  societies.  The 
standard  of  living  is  higher  here,  but  there  are 
countless  evidences  of  thrift  and  a  general  rise 
in  condition. 

In  the  matter  of  prostitution,  under  "  D,"  it  is 
shown  that  but  eight  per  cent  of  this  class  come 
from  the  factory,  twenty-nine  per  cent  being 
from  domestic  service.  In  Lynn,  Mass.,  a  town 
chosen  for  illustration  because  of  the  large  per- 


Aspects  of  Factory  Labor.          93 

centage  of  factory  operatives,  it  was  found  that 
but  seven  per  cent  of  those  arrested  were  from 
this  class  ;  and  this  is  true  of  all  points  where 
the  foreign-born  element  is  not  largely  in  the 
majority. 

Last  comes  the  question  of  intellectual  de- 
generacy, under  "  E,"  On  this  point  it  is  hardly 
fair  to  make  comparison  of  the  present  worker 
with  the  Lowell  girl  of  the  first  period  of  fac- 
tory labor,  since  she  came  from  an  educated 
class,  and  was  distinctively  American.  Taking 
workers  as  a  whole,  a  vast  advance  shows  itself. 
Regularity  and  fixed  rule  have  often  been  the 
first  education  in  this  direction;  and  the  life, 
even  with  all  its  drawbacks,  has  the  right  to  be 
regarded  as  an  educational  force,  and  the  first 
step  in  this  direction  for  a  large  proportion  of 
the  workers  in  it.  There  are  points  where  the 
arraignment  of  Alfred,  in  his  "  History  of  the 
Factory  Movement,"  is  still  true.1  He  speaks 
of  it  as  a  "  system  which  jested  with  civilization, 
laughed  at  humanity,  and  made  a  mockery  of 
every  law  of  physical  and  moral  health  and  of 
the  principles  of  natural  and  social  order."  The 
"  Report  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Labor  for 

1  Alfred's  History  of  the  Factory  Movement,  vol.  i.  p.  27. 


94  Women    Wage- Earners. 

1885"  shows  that  the  charge  might  still  be 
righteously  brought;  and  Mr.  Bishop  gives  the 
same  testimony  in  his  reports  for  New  Jersey. 
Evil  is  still  part  of  the  system,  and  well-nigh 
inseparable  from  the  methods  of  production  and 
the  conditions  of  competition;  but  that  there 
are  evils  is  recognized  at  all  points,  and  thus 
their  continuance  will  not  and  cannot  be  per- 
petuated. 


Rise  and  Growth  of  Trades.        95 


IV. 


RISE   AND    GROWTH    OF    TRADES    UP    TO    THE 
PRESENT    TIME. 

DEFEAT  and  discouragement  attend  well- 
nigh  every  step  of  the  attempt  to  reach 
any  conclusions  regarding  women  workers 
in  the  early  years  of  the  century.  It  is  true 
that  1832  witnessed  an  attempt  at  an  investi- 
gation into  their  status,  but  the  results  were  of 
slight  value,  actual  figures  being  almost  unat- 
tainable. The  census  of  1840  gave  more,  and 
that  of  1850  showed  still  larger  gain.  In  that 
of  1840  the  number  of  women  and  children  in 
the  silk  industry  was  taken;  but  while  the 
same  is  true  of  the  later  one,  there  is  appar- 
ently no  record  of  them  in  any  printed  form. 
The  New  York  State  Census  for  the  years 
1845  and  1855  gave  some  space  to  the  work 
of  women  and  children,  but  there  is  nothing 
of  marked  value  till  another  decade  had 
passed. 


96  Women   Wage-Earners. 

It  is  to  the  United  States  Census  for  1860 
that  we  must  look  for  the  first  really  definite 
statements  as  to  the  occupations  of  women  and 
children.  Scattered  returns  of  an  earlier  date 
had  shown  that  the  percentage  of  those 
employed  in  factories  was  a  steadily  increasing 
one,  but  in  what  ratio  was  considered  as 
unimportant.  In  fact,  statistics  of  any  order 
had  small  place,  nor  was  their  need  seriously 
felt,  save  here  and  there,  in  the  mind  of  the 
student. 

To  comprehend  the  blankness  of  this  period 
in  all  matters  relating  to  social  and  economic 
questions,  it  is  necessary  to  recall  the  fact 
that  no  such  needs  as  those  of  the  mother 
country  pressed  upon  us.  To  those  who  looked 
below  the  surface  and  watched  the  growing 
tide  of  emigration,  it  was  plain  that  they  were, 
in  no  distant  day,  to  arise;  but  for  the  most 
part,  even  for  those  compelled  to  severest  toil, 
it  was  taken  for  granted  that  full  support  was 
a  certainty,  and  that  the  men  or  women  who 
did  not  earn  a  comfortable  living  could  blame 
no  one  but  themselves. 

There  were  other  reasons  why  any  enumera- 
tion of  women  workers  seemed  not  only  super- 


Rise  and  Growth  of  Trades.        97 

fluous  but  undesirable.  For  the  better  order, 
prejudice  was  still  strong  enough  against  all 
who  deviated  from  custom  or  tradition  to  make 
each  new  candidate  for  a  living  shrink  from 
any  publicity  that  could  be  avoided.  Society 
frowned  upon  the  woman  who  dared  to  strike 
out  in  new  paths,  and  thus  made  them  even 
more  thorny  than  necessity  had  already  done. 

It  is  impossible  for  the  present,  with  its  full 
freedom  of  opportunity,  to  realize,  or  credit 
even,  the  difficulties  of  the  past,  or  even  of  a 
period  hardly  more  than  a  generation  ago.  It 
was  of  this  time  that  Dr.  Emily  Blackwell, 
one  of  the  pioneers  in  higher  work  for  women, 
wrote :  — 

"  Women  were  hindered  at  every  turn  by  endless 
restraint  in  endless  minor  detail  of  habit,  custom, 
tradition,  etc.  .  .  .  Most  women  who  have  been 
engaged  in  any  new  departure  would  testify  that  the 
difficulties  of  the  undertaking  lay  far  more  in  these 
artificial  hindrances  and  burdens  than  in  their  own 
health,  or  in  the  nature  of  the  work  itself." 

It  was  this  shrinking  from  publicity,  among 
all  save  the  most  ordinary  workers,  by  this 
time  largely  foreign,  that  made  one  difficulty 
in  the  way  of  census  enumerators.  By  1860  it 

7 


98  Women    Wage-Earners. 

had  become  plain  that  an  enormous  increase  in 
their  numbers  was  taking  place,  and  that  no 
just  idea  of  this  increase  could  be  formed  so 
long  as  industrial  statistics  were  made  up  with 
no  distinction  as  to  sex.  The  spread  of  the 
factory  system  and  the  constant  invention  of 
new  machinery  had  long  ago  removed  from 
homes  the  few  branches  of  the  work  that  could 
be  carried  on  within  them.  Processes  had 
divided  and  subdivided.  The  mill-worker 
knew  no  longer  every  phase  of  the  work 
implied  in  the  production  of  her  web,  but 
became  more  and  more  a  part  of  the  machine 
itself.  This  was  especially  true  of  all  textile 
industries,  —  cotton  or  woollen,  with  their 
many  ramifications,  —  and  becomes  more  so 
with  each  year  of  progress. 

Cotton  and  woollen  manufactures,  with  the 
constantly  increasing  subdivisions  of  all  the 
processes  involved,  counted  their  thousands 
upon  thousands  of  women  workers.  Another 
industry  had  been  one  of  the  first  opened  to 
women,  much  of  its  work  being  done  at  home. 
Shoemaking,  with  all  its  processes  of  binding 
and  finishing,  had  its  origin  for  this  country 
in  Massachusetts,  to  the  ingenuity  and  enter- 


Rise  and  Growth  of  Trades.         99 

prise  of  whose  mechanics  is  due  the  fact  that 
the  United  States  has  attained  the  highest 
perfection  in  this  branch.  Lynn,  Mass.,  as  far 
back  as  1750,  had  become  famous  for  its 
women's  shoes,  the  making  of  which  was  car- 
ried on  in  the  families  of  the  manufacturers. 
At  first  no  especial  skill  was  shown;  but  in 
1750  a  Welsh  shoemaker,  named  John  Adam 
Dagyr,  settled  there  and  acquired  great  fame 
for  himself  and  the  town  for  his  superior  work- 
manship. In  1788  the  exports  of  women's 
shoes  from  Lynn  were  one  hundred  thousand 
pairs,  while  in  1795  over  three  hundred  thou- 
sand pairs  were  sent  out,  and  by  1870  the 
number  had  reached  eleven  million. 

Beginning  with  the  employment  of  a  few 
dozen  women,  twenty  other  towns  took  up  the 
same  industry,  and  furnish  their  quota  of  the 
general  return.  The  Massachusetts  Bureau  of 
Labor  gives,  in  its  report  for  1873,  the  number 
of  women  employed  as  11,193,  with  some  six 
hundred  female  children.  Maine  and  New 
Hampshire  followed,  and  both  have  a  small  pro- 
portion of  women  workers  engaged  in  the 
industry,  while  it  has  gradually  extended,  New 
England  always  retaining  the  lead,  till  New 


ioo  Women    Wage-Earners. 

York,  Philadelphia,  and  many  Western  and 
Southern  towns  rank  high  in  the  list  of 
producers. 

As  in  every  other  trade,  processes  have 
divided  -and  subdivided.  Sewing-machines 
did  away  with  the  tedious  binding  by  hand, 
which  had  its  compensations,  however,  in  the 
fact  that  it  was  done  at  home.  There  is  only 
incidental  record  of  the  numbers  employed  in 
this  industry  till  the  later  census  returns;  but 
the  percentage  outside  of  Massachusetts  re- 
mained a  very  small  one,  as  even  in  Maine  the 
total  number  given  in  the  Report  of  the  Bureau 
of  Labor  for  1887  is  but  533,  an  almost  inap- 
preciable per  cent  of  the  population  The 
returns  of  the  census  of  1880  give  the  total 
number  of  women  in  this  employment  as 
21,000,  the  proportion  still  remaining  largest 
for  New  England. 

Straw-braiding  was  another  of  the  early 
trades,  and  the  first  straw  bonnet  braided  in  the 
United  States  was  made  by  Miss  Betsey  Metcalf, 
of  Providence,  R.  I.,  in  1789.  For  many  years 
straw-plaiting  was  done  at  home;  but  the 
quality  of  our  material  was  always  inferior  to 
that  grown  abroad,  our  climate  making  it  much 


Rise  and  Growth  of  Trades. 

more  brittle  and  difficult  to  handle.  The  wage 
at  first  was  from  two  to  three  dollars  a  week ; 
but  as  factories  were  established  where  im- 
ported braid  wa's  made  up,  the  sum  sometimes 
reached  five  dollars.  The  census  of  1860  gave 
the  total  number  of  women  employed  as  1,430. 
According  to  the  census  of  1870,  nine  States 
had  taken  up  this  industry,  Massachusetts  em- 
ploying the  largest  number,  and  Vermont  the 
least,  the  total  number  being  12,594;  while 
in  1880  the  number  had  risen  to  19,998. 

Up  to  the  time  of  the  Civil  War,  aside  from 
factory  employments,  the  trades  open  to  women 
were  limited,  and  the  majority  of  their  occupa- 
tions were  still  carried  on  at  home,  or  with  but 
few  in  numbers,  as  in  dressmaking-establish- 
ments, millinery,  and  the  like.  With  the  new 
conditions  brought  about  at  this  time,  and  the 
vast  number  of  women  thrown  upon  their  own 
resources,  came  the  flocking  into  trades  for 
which  there  had  been  no  training,  and  which 
had  been  considered  as  the  exclusive  property 
of  men.  A  surplus  of  untrained  workers  at 
once  appeared,  and  this  and  general  financial 
depression  brought  the  wage  to  its  lowest 
terms;  but  when  this  had  in  part  ended,  the 


IO2  Women   Wage-Earners. 

trades  still  remained  open.  At  the  close  of 
the  war  some  hundred  were  regarded  as  prac- 
ticable. Ten  years  later  the  number  had  more 
than  doubled,  and  to-day  we  find  over  four 
hundred  occupations ;  while,  as  new  inventions 
arise,  the  number  of  possibilities  in  this  direc- 
tion steadily  increases.  The  many  considera- 
tions involved  in  these  facts  will  be  met  later 
on.  General  conditions  of  trades  as  a  whole 
are  given  in  the  census  returns,  though  even 
there  hardly  more  than  approximately,  little 
work  of  much  real  value  being  accomplished 
till  the  formation  of  the  labor  bureaus,  with 
which  we  are  soon  to  deal.  Every  allowance, 
however,  is  to  be  made  for  the  Census  Bureau, 
which  found  itself  almost  incapable  of  over- 
coming many  of  the  lions  in  the  way.  The  tone 
of  the  remarks  on  this  point  in  that  for  1860  is 
almost  plaintive,  nor  is  it  less  so  in  the  next; 
but  methods  have  clarified,  and  the  work  is 
far  more  authoritative  than  for  long  seemed 
possible. 

Innumerable  difficulties  hedged  about  the 
enumerators  for  1860.  Rooted  objection  to 
answering  the  questions  in  detail  was  not  one  of 
the  least.  Unfamiliarity  with  the  newer  phases 


Rise  and  Growth  of  Trades.       103 


of  the  work  was'  another,  and  thus  it  happened 
that  the  volume  when  issued  was  full  of  dis- 
crepancies. The  tables  of  occupations,  for 
example,  characterized  but  a  little  over  two 
thousand  persons  as  connected  with  woollen 
and  worsted  manufacture ;  while  the  tables  of 
manufactures  showed  that  considerably  more 
than  forty  thousand  persons  were  engaged, 
upon  the  average,  in  these  branches  of  manu- 
facturing industry. 

The  returns  gave  the  number  of  women 
employed  in  various  branches  of  manufacture 
as  two  Hundred  and  eighty-five  thousand,  but 
stated  that  the  figures  were  approximate  merely, 
it  being  impossible  to  secure  full  returns.  It 
was  found  that  three  and  a  half  per  cent  of  the 
population  of  Massachusetts  were  in  the  fac- 
tories, and  nearly  the  same  proportion  in  Con- 
necticut and  Rhode  Island ;  but  details  were  of 
the  most  meagre  description,  and  conclusions 
based  upon  them  were  likely  to  err  at  every 
point.  Its  value  was  chiefly  educative,  since 
the  failure  it  represents  pointed  to  a  change  in 
methods,  and  more  preparation  than  had  at  any 
time  been  considered  necessary  in  the  officials 
who  had  the  matter  in  charge. 


IO4  Women   Wage- Earners. 

The  census  for  1870  reaped  the  benefits  of 
the  new  determination ;  yet  even  of  this  Gen- 
eral Walker  was  forced  to  write :  "  This  census 
concludes  that  from  one  to  two  hundred  thou- 
sand workers  are  not  accounted  for,  from  the 
difficulty  experienced  in  getting  proper  returns. 
The  nice  distinctions  of  foreign  statisticians 
are  impossible."  And  he  adds:  — 

"Whoever  will  consider  the  almost  utter  want  of 
'apprenticeship  in  this  country,  the  facility  with  which 
pursuits  are  taken  up  and  abandoned,  and  the  variety 
and,  indeed,  seeming  incongruity  of  the  numerous  in- 
dustrial offices  that  are  frequently  united  in  one 
person,  will  appreciate  the  force  of  this  argument.  .  .  . 
The  organization  of  domestic  service  in  the  United 
States  is  so  crude  that  no  distinction  whatever  can  be 
successfully  maintained.  A  census  of  occupations  in 
which  the  attempt  should  be  made  to  reach  anything 
like  European  completeness  in  this  matter  would  re- 
sult in  the  return  of  tens  of  thousands  of  '  house- 
keepers '  and  hundreds  of  thousands  of  '  cooks,'  who 
were  simply  '  maids  of  all  work,'  being  the  singje  ser- 
vants of  the  families  in  which  they  are  employed."  * 

This  census  gives  the  total  number  of  women 
workers,  so  far  as  it  could  be  determined,  as 

1  Remarks  on  Tables  of  Occupations,  Ninth  Census  of  the 
United  States,  Population  and  Social  Statistics,  p.  663. 


Rise  and  Growth  of  Trades.      105 

1,836,288.  Of  these,  191,000  were  from  ten 
to  fifteen  years  of  age;  1,594,783,  from  sixteen 
to  fifty-nine;  and  50,404,  sixty  years  and  over, 
the  larger  proportion  of  the  latter  division 
being  given  as  engaged  in  agricultural 
employments. 

In  the  first  period  of  age,  females  pursuing 
gainful  occupations  are  to  males  as  one  to 
three;  in  the  second,  one  to  six;  and  in  the 
third,  one  to  twelve.  The  actual  increase  over 
the  numbers  given  in  the  census  for  1860  is 
1,551,288.  The  reasons  for  this  almost  incre- 
dible variation  have  already  been  suggested; 
and  their  operation  became  even  stronger  in 
the  interval  between  that  of  1870  and  1880. 
By  this  time  methods  were  far  more  skilful 
and  returns  more  minute,  and  thus  the  figures 
are  to  be  accepted  with  more  confidence  than 
was  possible  with  the  earlier  ones.  The 
factory  system,  extending  into  almost  every 
trade,  brought  about  more  and  more  differentia- 
tion of  occupations,  some  two  hundred  of  which 
were  by  1880  open  to  women. 

Comparing  the  rates  of  increase  during  the 
period  between  1860  and  1870,  women  wage- 
earners  had  increased  19  per  cent,  the  increase 


1 06  Women   Wage-Earners. 

for  men  being  but  -^-.  Among  the  women, 
6.7  per  cent  were  engaged  in  agriculture,  33.4 
in  personal  service,  7.3  in  trade  and  trans- 
portation, and  16.5  in  manufactures.  In  1880 
women  engaged  in  gainful  occupations  formed 
5.28  of  the  total  population,  and  14.68  of 
females  over  ten  years  of  age.  The  present 
rate  is  not  yet1  determined;  but  while  figures 
will  not  be  accessible  for  some  months  to 
come,  it  is  stated  definitely  that  the  increase 
will  indicate  nearer  ten  than  five  per  cent. 

The  total  number  employed  is  given  for  this 
census  as  2,647,157.  The  occupations  are 
divided  into  four  classes  :  first,  agriculture;  sec- 
ond, professional  and  personal  services;  third, 
trade  and  transportation ;  fourth,  manufactures, 
mechanical  and  mining  industries.  In  agricul- 
ture, 594, 510  women  were  at  work;  in  profes- 
sional and  personal  services,  this  including 
domestic  service,  1,361,295;  trade  and  trans- 
portation, this  including  shop-girls,  etc.,  had 
59,364;  while  631,988  were  engaged  in  the  last 
division  of  manufacturing,  etc.  Of  girls  from 
ten  to  fifteen  years  of  age,  agriculture  had 
135,862;  professional  and  personal  services, 

1  June,  1893. 


Rise  and  Growth  of  Trades.       107 


107,830;  trade,  2, 547;  and  manufacturing,  etc., 
46,930.  From  sixteen  to  fifty-nine  years  of 
age  there  were  in  agriculture  435,920;  in  pro- 
fessional and  personal  services,  1,215,189;  trade 
and  transportation,  54,849;  and  manufacturing, 
etc.,  577,157.  From  sixty  years  and  upward 
the  four  classes  were  divided  as  follows:  Agri- 
culture, 22,728;  professional,  etc.,  38,276; 
trade,  etc.,  1,968;  and  manufacturing,  etc., 
7,901. 

Even  for  this  record  numbers  must  be  added, 
since  many  women  work  at  home  and  make  no 
return  of  the  trade  they  have  chosen,  while 
many  others  are  held  by  pride  from  admitting 
that  they  work  at  all.  But  the  addition  of  a 
hundred  thousand  for  the  entire  country  would 
undoubtedly  cover  this  discrepancy  in  full ;  nor 
are  these  numbers  too  large,  though  it  is 
impossible  to  more  than  approximate  them. 

Suggestive  as  these  figures  are,  they  are  still 
more  so  when  we  come  to  their  apportionment 
to  States.  They  become  then  a  history  of  the 
progress  of  trades,  and  women's  share  in  them; 
and  a  glance  enables  one  to  determine  the  pro- 
portion employed  in  each.  In  the  table  which 
follows,  industries  are  condensed  under  a  gen- 


io8 


Women    Wage-Earners. 


eral  head,  no  mention  being  made  of  the  many 
subdivisions,  each  ranking  as  a  trade,  but 
going  to  make  up  the  business  as  a  whole.  It 
is  the  result  of  statistics  taken  in  fifty  of  the 
principal  cities,  and  includes  only  those  indus- 
tries in  which  women  have  the  largest  share.1 


Total 
Number. 

Per  Cent 
of  Males. 

Per  Cent 
of 

Females. 

Children. 

Book-binding     .... 

10,612 

4,831 

4,553 

616 

Carpet-  weaving 

20,371 

4,960 

4,207 

833 

Men's  Clothing      .     .     . 

160,813 

4,80  1 

5,037 

J59 

WTomen's  Clothing     .     . 

25,192 

1,030 

8,833 

137 

Cotton  Goods    .... 

185,472 

3,457 

1,629 

Men's  Furnishing  Goods 

11,174 

1,140 

8^560 

300 

Hosiery  and  Knitting 
Millinery  and  Lace     .     . 

28,885 
25,687 

2,602 

I,I2O 

6,130 
8,637 

1,268 
243 

Shirts   

6,555 

I,48l 

8,000 

5*3 

Silk  and  Silk  Goods 

3*>337 

2,992 

5,232 

1,776 

Straw  Goods      .... 

10,948 

2,991 

6,850 

Tobacco                        . 

"*  2  7  C(S 

3  290 

2,166 

Umbrellas  and  Canes     . 

3'6o8 

4^169 

679 

Woollen  Goods      .     .     . 

86,504 

54,544 

3,395 

i,i74 

Worsted  Goods     .     .     . 

18,800 

5,43i 

5,038 

i,54o 

In  obtaining  these  averages,  it  was  found 
necessary  to  equalize  the  returns  of  Pittsburg 
and  Philadelphia,  the  former  having  but  4.55 

1  The  table  is  copied  with  minute  care  from  that  given  in 
the  last  census  ;  and  while  it  shows  one  or  two  deficiencies, 
the  writer  is  in  no  sense  responsible  for  them,  its  accuracy,  as  a 
whole,  not  being  affected  by  the  slight  discrepancy  referred  to. 


Rise  and  Growth  of  Trades.      109 

per  cent  of  women  workers,  while  Philadelphia 
had  31.  This  resulted  from  the  fact  that  the 
industries  of  Philadelphia  are  the  manufactur- 
ing of  textiles  and  other  goods,  which  employ 
women  chiefly;  while  Pittsburg  has  principally 
iron  and  steel  mills.  New  York  was  found  to 
have  3 1  per  cent  of  women  workers ;  Lowell, 
Mass.,  had  47.42,  and  Manchester,  N.  H.,  53; 
Pittsburg  and  Wilmington,  Del.,  having  the 
lowest  percentage. 

The  gain  of  women  in  trades  over  the  census 
of  1870  was  sixty-four  per  cent,  the  total  per- 
centage of  women  workers  for  the  whole  coun- 
try being  forty-nine.  The  ten  years  just 
ended  show  a  still  larger  percentage ;  and  many 
of  the  trades  which  a  decade  since  still  hesi- 
tated to  admit  women,  are  now  open,  those 
regarded  as  most  peculiarly  the  province  of 
men  having  received  many  feminine  recruits. 
These  isolated  or  scattered  instances  hardly 
belong  here,  and  are  mentioned  simply  as  indi- 
cations of  the  general  trend.  Wise  or  unwise, 
experiment  is  the  order  of  the  day,  its  principal 
service  in  many  cases  being  to  test  untried 
powers,  and  break  down  barriers,  built  up  often 


i  io  Women   Wage- Earners. 


by  mere   tradition,   and   not  again  to  rise  till 
women  themselves  decide  when  and  where. 

Taking  States  in  their  alphabetical  order, 
the  census  of  1880  gives  the  number  of  working- 
women  for  each  as  follows : 1  — 


Alabama,  124,056. 
Arkansas,  30,616. 
California,  28,200. 
Colorado,  4,779. 
Connecticut,  48,670. 
Delaware,  7,928. 
Florida,  17,781. 
Georgia,  152,322. 
Illinois,  106,101. 
Indiana,  51,422. 
Iowa,  44,845. 
Kansas,  54,422. 
Louisiana,  95,052. 
Maine,  33,528. 
Massachusetts,  174,183. 
Michigan,  55,013. 
Minnesota,  25,077. 
Mississippi,  110,416. 
Missouri,  62,943. 
Nebraska,  10,455. 
Nevada,  403. 
New  Hampshire,  30,128. 


New  Jersey,  66,776. 

New  York,  360,381. 

North  Carolina,  86,976. 

Ohio,  112,639. 

Oregon,  2,779. 

Pennsylvania,  216,980. 

Rhode  Island,  29,859. 

South  Carolina,  120,087. 

Tennessee,  56,408. 

Texas,  58,943- 

Vermont,  16,167. 

West  Virginia,  11,508. 

Wisconsin,  46,395. 

Arizona,  471. 

Dakota,  2,851. 

District  of  Columbia,  19,658. 

Idaho,  291. 

Montana,  507. 

New  Mexico,  2,262. 

Utah,  2,877. 

Washington  Territory,  1,060. 

Wyoming,  464. 


1  The  tables  in  this  department  of  the  census  for  1890  are 
not  yet  ready  for  the  public  ;  but  the  department  states  that  the 
increase  in  women  wage-earners  averages  about  ten, per  cent. 


Labor  Bureaus.  in 


V. 


LABOR    BUREAUS    AND    THEIR    WORK    IN 
RELATION    TO    WOMEN. 

THE  difficulties  encountered  by  the  enumer- 
ators of  the  United  States  Census,  and  the 
growing  conviction  that  much  more  minute  and 
organized  effort  must  be  given  if  the  real 
status  of  women  workers  was  to  be  obtained, 
had  already  been  matter  of  grave  discussion. 
The  labor  question  pressed  upon  all  who  looked 
below  the  surface  of  affairs;  and  very  shortly 
after  the  census  of  1860  a  proposition  was  made 
in  Boston  to  establish  there  a  formal  bureau  of 
labor,  whose  business  should  be  to  fill  in  all 
the  blanks  that  in  the  general  work  were  passed 
over. 

Many  facts,  all  pointing  to  the  necessity  of 
some  such  organization,  lay  before  the  men 
who  pondered  the  matter,  —  factory  abuses  of 
many  orders,  the  startling  increase  of  pauper- 
ism and  crime,  with  other  causes  which  can 
find  small  space  here.  With  difficulty  consent 


112  Women   Wage- Earners. 

was  obtained  to  establish  a  bureau  which  should 
inquire  into  the  causes  of  all  this ;  and  the  first 
report  was  given  to  the  public  in  1870.  It  was 
descriptive  rather  than  statistical,  and  necessa- 
rily so.  Methods  were  still  a  matter  of  question 
and  experiment.  The  public  had  small  interest 
in  the  project,  and  it  was  essential  to  outline^ 
not  only  the  work  to  be  done,  but  the  reasons 
for  its  need. 

Naturally,  then,  the  volume  touched  upon 
many  abuses,  —  children  in  factories,  and  the 
factory  system  as  a  whole;  the  homes  of 
workers,  and  their  needs  in  sanitary  and  other 
directions;  and  toward  the  end  a  few  pages  of 
special  comment  on  the  hard  lives  of  working- 
women  as  a  whole. 

The  report  for  1871  followed  the  same  lines, 
giving  more  detail  to  each.  That  for  1872  took 
up  various  phases  of  women's  work,1  with  some 
of  the  general  conditions  then  existing.  For 
the  following  year  elaborate  tables  of  the  cost 
of  living  were  given,  and  are  invaluable  as  mat- 
ters of  reference;  and  in  1874  came  a  no  less 
important  contribution  'to  social  science  in  the 
report  on  the  "  Homes  of  Working-People." 

1  Report  for  1872,  pp.  59-108. 


Labor  Bureaus.  113 

Those  of  working-women  were  of  course  in- 
cluded, but  there  was  still  no  description  of 
many  of  the  conditions  known  to  hedge  them 
about.  Each  inquiry,  however,  turned  atten- 
tion more  and  more  in  this  direction,  and 
emphasized  the  need  of  some  work  given 
exclusively  to  women  workers. 

In  1875  attention  was  directed  to  the  health 
of  working-women,  and  a  portion  of  the  report 
was  devoted  to  the  special  effects  of  certain 
forms  of  employment  upon  the  health  of 
women,1  the  education  of  children,  the  con- 
ditions of  families,  etc.  That  for  1876  dis- 
cussed the  question  of  wives'  earnings,  and 
gave  tables  of  what  proportion  they  made ;  and 
that  for  1877  took  up  "Pauperism  and  Crime," 
in  the  growing  amount  of  which  it  was  claimed 
by  many  that  the  worker  had  large  share. 

In  1878  large  space  was  given  to  education 
and  the  work  of  the  young,  for  whom  the  half- 
time  system  was  urged.  The  conjugal  condi- 
tion of  wives  and  mothers  was  also  considered, 
and  the  bearing  of  their  work  upon  the  home. 
The  financial  distress  of  the  period  had  affected 
wages,  and  the  report  for  1879  considered  the 

1  Report  for  1875,  PP-  67-112. 
8 


H4  Women   Wage-Earners. 

effect  of  this,  with  the  condition  of  the  "  unem- 
ployed," the  tramp  question,  and  other  phases 
of  the  problem.  With  1880  and  the  ending  of 
the  first  decade  of  work  in  this  direction  came 
a  fuller  report  on  the  social  life  of  working- 
men  and  the  divorces  in  Massachusetts;  1881 
made  a  plea  for  uniform  hours,  and  1882 
was  devoted  to  wages,  prices,  and  profits,  and 
further  details  of  the  life  of  operatives  within 
their  homes;  and  1883  found  reason  again  to 
go  over  the  question  of  wages  and  prices. 

I  have  given  this  detail  because,  when  one 
views  the  work  of  the  bureau  as  a  whole,  it  will 
be  seen  that  each  year  formed  one  step  toward 
the  final  result,  which  has  been  of  most  vital 
bearing  upon  all  since  accomplished  in  the 
same  direction  for  women.  Until  the  appear- 
ance of  the  report  for  1884,  on  the  "Working- 
Girls  of  Boston,"  there  had  been  no  absolute 
and  authoritative  knowledge  as  to  their  lives, 
their  earnings,  and  their  status  as  a  whole. 
Their  numbers  were  equally  unknown,  nor  was 
there  interest  in  their  condition,  save  here  and 
there  among  special  students  of  social  science. 
On  the  other  hand  there  was  a  popular  impres- 
sion that  the  ranks  of  prostitution  were  re- 


Labor  Bureaus.  1 1 5 

cruited  from  the  manufactory,  and  that  a 
certain  stigma  necessarily  rested  upon  the 
factory-worker  and  indeed  upon  working-girls 
as  a  class. 

Six  divisions  had  been  found  essential  to  the 
thorough  handling  of  the  subject;  and  these 
divisions  have  formed  the  basis  of  all  work 
since  done  in  the  same  lines,  whether  in  State 
bureaus  or  in  that  of  the  United  States,  soon 
to  find  mention  here.  It  was  under  the  direc- 
tion of  Colonel  Carroll  D.  Wright  that  the 
Massachusetts  Bureau  did  its  careful  and  scien- 
tific work;  and  he  represents  the  most  valuable 
labor  in  this  direction  that  the  country  has 
had,  deserving  to  rank  in  this  matter,  as  Tench 
Coxe  still  does  in  the  manufacturing  system, 
as  the  "  Father  "  of  the  labor-bureau  system. 

The  six  divisions  settled  upon  as  essential 
to  any  general  system  of  reports  were  as 
follows :  — 

1.  Social  Condition. 

2.  Occupations,  Places  in  which  Employed. 

3.  Hours  of  Labor,  Time  Lost,  etc. 

4.  Physical  and  Sanitary  Condition. 

5.  Economic  Condition. 

6.  Moral  Condition. 


1 1 6  Women   Wage- Earners. 

The  Tenth  Census  of  the  United  States  gave 
the  number  of  women  employed  in  the  city  of 
Boston  as  38,881,  20,000  of  whom  were  in 
occupations  other  than  domestic  service. 
Each  year,  as .  we  have  already  seen,  had 
touched  more  and  more  nearly  upon  the  facts 
bound  up  in  their  lives,  but  it  had  become 
necessary  to  determine  with  an  accuracy  that 
could  not  be  brought  in  question  precisely  the 
facts  given  under  the  six  headings.  To  the 
surprise  of  the  special  agents  detailed  for  this 
work,  who  had  anticipated  disagreeables  of 
every  order,  the  girls  themselves  took  the 
liveliest  interest  in  the  matter,  answered  ques- 
tions freely,  and  gave  every  facility  for  the 
fullest  searching  into  each  phase  involved. 
American  girls  were  found  to  form  but  22. 3 
per  cent  of  the  whole  number  of  working- 
women  in  Massachusetts,  of  whom  but  58.4 
per  cent  had  been  born  in  that  State. 

The  results  reached  in  this  report  may  be 
regarded  as  a  summary,  not  only  of  condi- 
tions for  Boston,  but  for  all  the  large  manu- 
facturing towns  of  New  England,  later  inquiry 
justifying  this  conclusion. 

The  average  age  of  working -girls  was  found 


Labor  Bureaus.  1 1 7 

be  24.81  years,  and  the  average  at  which 
ey  began  work,  16. 81 ;  the  average  time  actu- 
ly  at  work,  7.49  years,  and  the  average  num- 
r  of  occupations  followed  178,  the  time  spent 

each  being  4.43  years.       Of  the  whole,  85 
r  cent  were  found  to  do  their  own  housework 
and  sewing,  either  wholly  or  in  part. 

But  22  per  cent  were  allowed  any  vacation, 

;\  but  3.9  per  cent  received  pay  during  that 
e,  the  average  vacation  being  1.87  weeks, 
little  over  26  per  cent  worked  the  full  year 
hout  loss  of  time,  while  an  average  of  12.32 
weeks  was  lost  by  73  per  cent.  The  average 
time  worked  by  all  during  the  year  was  42.95 
weeks.  In  personal  service  26.  5  per  cent  worked 
more  than  ten  hours  a  day;  in  trade,  19.5  per 
cent  were  so  employed,  and  in  manufactures 
5.6  per  cent.  In  all  occupations  8.9  per  cent 
worked  more  than  ten  hours  a  day,  and  8.6  per 
cent  more  than  sixty  hours  a  week. 

In  the  matter  of  health, 76. 2  per  cent  of  the 
whole  number  employed  were  in  good  health. 

The  average  weekly  earnings  for  the  average 
time  employed,  42.95  weeks,  was  $6.01,  and 
the  average  weekly  earnings  of  all  the  working- 
girls  of  Boston  for  a  whole  year  were  $4.91. 


1 1 8  Women   Wage-Earners. 

The  average  weekly  income,  including  earn- 
ings, assistance,  and  income  from  extra  work 
done  by  many,  was  $5.17  a  year. 

The  average  yearly  income  from  all  sources 
was  $269.70,  and  the  average  yearly  expenses 
for  positive  needs  $261.30,  leaving  but  $7.77, 
on  the  average,  as  a  margin  for  books,  amuse- 
ments, etc.  Those  making  savings  are  1 1  per 
cent  of  the  whole,  their  average  savings  being 
$72. 15  per  year.  A  few  run  in  debt,  the  aver- 
age debt  being  $36.60  for  the  less  than  3  per 
cent  incurring  debt. 

Of  the  total  average  yearly  expenses,  these 
percentages  being  based  upon  the  law  laid 
down  by  Dr.  Engels  of  Prussia,  as  to  percen- 
tage of  expenses  belonging  to  subsistence, 
63  per  cent  must  be  expended  for  food  and 
lodging,  and  25  per  cent  for  clothing,  — a  total 
of  88  per  cent  of  total  expenses  for  subsistence 
and  clothing,  leaving  but  12  per  cent  of  total 
expense  to  be  distributed  to  the  other  needs  of 
living. 

These  are,  briefly  summed  up,  the  results  of 
the  investigation,  in  which  the  single  workers 
constituted  88.9  of  the  whole,  and  the  married 
but  6  per  cent,  widows  making  up  the  number. 


Labor  Bureaus.  119 

[t  is  impossible  in  these  limits  to  give  further 
letail  on  these  points,  all  readers  being  re- 
ferred to  the  report  itself. 

The  same  questions  that  had  first  sought 
mswer  in  New  England  were  even  more  press- 
ing in  New  York.  As  in  most  subjects  of 
deep  popular  or  scientific  importance,  the 
sense  of  need  for  more  data  by  which  to  judge 
seemed  in  the  air;  and  already  the  Labor  Bureau 
>f  the  State  of  New  York,  under  the  efficient 
guidance  of  Mr.  Charles  F.  Peck,  had  begun  a 
course  of  inquiries  of  the  same  nature.  For 
years,  beginning  with  the  New  York  "  Tribune," 
in  the  days  when  Margaret  Fuller  worked  for 
it  and  touched  at  times  upon  social  questions, 
—  always  in  the  mind  of  Horace  Greeley,  its 
founder,  —  there  had  been  periodical  stirs  of 
feeling  in  behalf  of  sewing-women.  It  was 
known  that  the  enormous  influx  of  foreign 
labor  naturally  massed  at  this  point,  more 
than  could  ever  be  possible  elsewhere,  had 
brought  with  it  evils  suspected,  but  still  not 
yet  defined  in  any  sense  to  be  trusted.  Indi- 
cations on  the  surface  were  seriously  bad,  but 
actual  investigation  had  never  tested  their  na- 
ture or  degree.  The  report  of  the  bureau  for 


1 20  Women   Wage-Earners. 

1885,  which  was  given  to  the  public  in  1886, 
met  with  a  degree  of  interest  and  study  not 
usually  accorded  these  volumes,  and  roused 
public  feeling  to  an  unexpected  extent. 

Mr.  Peck  brought  to  the  work  much  the 
same  order  of  interest  that  had  marked  that  of 
Colonel  Wright,  and  wrote  in  his  introduction 
to  the  report  the  summary  of  the  situation  for 
New  York  City:  — 

"  By  reason  of  its  immense  population,  its  numer- 
ous and  extensive  manufactures,  its  wealth,  its  poverty, 
and  general  cosmopolitan  character,  New  York  City 
presents  a  field  for  investigation  into  the  subject  of 
'  Working- Women,  their  Trades,  Wages,  Home  and 
Social  Conditions,'  unequalled  by  any  other  centre  of 
population  in  America.  It  opens  up  a  wider  and 
more  diversified  field  for  inquiry,  study,  and  classifi- 
cation of  the  various  industries  in  which  women  seek 
employment,  than  can  be  found  even  in  European 
cities,  with  but  few  if  any  exceptions.  It  is  for  such 
reasons  that  the  inquiry  of  the  bureau  into  this  special 
subject  has  been  largely  confined  to  the  city  named." 

Two  hundred  and  forty-seven  trades  are 
given  in  this  report,  in  which  some  two  hun- 
dred thousand  women  were  found  to  be  engaged, 
this  being  exclusive  of  domestic  service.  The 


. 


Labor  Bureaus.  121 


ivisionsof  the  subject  were  substantially  those 
adopted  by  the  Massachusetts  Bureau ;  but  the 
umbers  and    complexity  of   conditions   made 
e  inquiry  far  more  difficult.      Its  results  and 
eir  bearings  will  find  place  later  on.     It  is 
ufficient    now   to    say   that   the   two    may  be 
egarded  as  summarizing  all  phases  of  work  for 
omen,   and  as  an  index  to  the  difficulties  at 
11  other  points  in  the  country. 

The  Bureau  of    Labor  for  Connecticut  sent 
ut  its  first  report  in  the  same  year  (1885),  and 
eluded   investigations  and    statistics    in   the 
me    lines,    though,  for   reasons  specified,   in 
uch  more  limited  degree.     That  for  1886  for 
he  same  State  took  up  in  detail  some  points  in 
gard  to  the  work  of  both  women  and  children, 
hich,  for  want  of  both  time  and  space,  had 
en  omitted  in  the  first,  their  returns  coincid- 
g  in  all  important  particulars  with  those  of 
he  other  bureaus. 

In  1886  the  California  Bureau  of  Labor 
touched  the  same  points,  but  only  incidentally, 
in  its  general  analysis  of  the  labor,  question. 
In  the  following  year,  however,  the  report 
covering  the  years  1887  and  1888  took  up  the 
question  under  the  same  aspects  as  those  han- 


122  Women   Wage-Earners. 

died  in  the  special  reports  on  this  topic,  and 
gave  full  treatment  of  the  wages,  lives,  and 
general  conditions  for  working-women.  It 
included,  also,  the  facts,  so  far  as  they  could 
be  ascertained,  of  the  nature,  wages,  and  con- 
ditions of  domestic  service  in  California,  — the 
first  attempt  at  treating  this  difficult  subject 
with  any  accuracy.  The  apprentice  system, 
and  an  important  chapter  on  manual  training 
and  its  bearings  make  this  report  one  of  the 
most  valuable,  from  the  social  point  of  view, 
that  has  been  given,  though  where  all  are 
invaluable  it  is  hard  to  characterize  one  above 
another. 

Mr.  Tobin,  for  California,  and  Mr.  Hutchins, 
for  Iowa,  seemed  moved  at  the  same  time  in 
much  the  same  way, —  the  Iowa  report  for  1887 
treating  the  many  questions  involved  with  that 
largeness  which  has  thus  far  distinguished 
work  in  this  direction.  Kansas,  in  the  report 
for  1888,  gave  general  conditions,  women 
being  treated  incidentally;  and  Minnesota,  in 
the  report  for  the  years  1887  and  1888,  gave  a 
chapter  on  working-women,  wages,  etc. 

Colorado  followed,  giving  in  the  report  for 
1887  and  1888,  under  the  management  of  Com- 


I 


Labor  Bureaus.  123 


missioner  Rice,  a  chapter  on  women  wage- 
workers,  in  which  space  is  given  to  certified 
complaints  of  the  women  themselves,  as  to 
what  they  consider  the  disabilities  of  their 
special  trades.  Domestic  service,  with  some 
of  its  abuses,  was  also  considered,  and  is  of 
much  value.  These  reports  sum  up  the  work 
so  far  done  in  the  West,  where  labor  bureaus 
are  of  recent  growth.  The  spirit  of  inquiry  is, 
however,  equally  alive;  and  each  year  will  see 
minuter  detail  and  a  deeper  scientific  spirit. 

Maine,  in  the  report  for  1888,  took  up  many 
questions  of  general  interest,  with  their  inci- 
dental bearings  on  the  work  of  women ;  and  in 
1889  came  another  report  from  Kansas,  in 
which  the  labor  commissioner,  Mr.  Frank 
Betton,  gave  large  space  to  an  investigation 
onducted  under  many  difficulties,  but  covering 
he  ground  very  fully.  A  very  full  report  from 

ichigan,  under  Commissioner  Henry  A.  Rob- 
nson,  was  issued  in  1892,  nearly  two  hundred 
es  being  given  to  an  exhaustive  examina- 
ion  into  the  conditions  of  women  wage-earners 
n  the  State,  its  methods  owing  much  to  the 
ork  which  had  preceded  it. 

With   this    background   of   admirable  work 


124  Women   Wage- Earners. 

always,  no  matter  what  might  be  the  limita- 
tions, making  each  report  a  little  broader  in 
purpose  and  minuter  in  detail,  the  way  was 
plain  for  something  even  more  comprehensive. 
This  was  furnished  by  the  Bureau  of  Labor  of 
the  United  States,  which  had  changed  its  name, 
and  become,  in  June,  1887,  the  Department  of 
Labor,  a  part  of  the  Department  of  the  Inte- 
rior. This  report  —  the  fourth  from  the  bureau, 
and  issued  in  1888  —  was  entitled  "Working- 
Women  in  Large  Cities,"  and  included  inves- 
tigations made  in  twenty-two  cities,  from 
Boston  to  San  Francisco  and  San  Jose. 

All  that  long  experience  had  demonstrated 
as  most  important  in  such  work  was  brought 
to  bear.  The  investigation  covered  manual 
labor  in  cities,  excluding  textile  industries, 
save  incidentally  as  these  had  already  been 
treated,  as  well  as  domestic  service.  Textile 
factories  are  usually  outside  of  large  cities,  and 
it  was  the  object  to  discover  the  opportunities 
of  employment  in  the  way  of  manual  labor  in 
cities  themselves. 

Three  hundred  and  forty-three  distinct  indus- 
tries showed  themselves,  and  others  were  found 
which  were  not  included,  it  being  safe  to  say 


Labor  Bureaus. 


125 


that  some  four  hundred  may  be  considered 
open  to  women.  As  before  stated,  many  are 
simply  subdivisions,  made  by  the  constantly 
increasing  complexity  of  machinery.  The 
agents  of  the  department  carried  their  work 
into  the  lowest  and  worst  places  in  the  cities 
named,  because  in  such  places  are  to  be  found 
women  who  are  struggling  for  a  livelihood  in 
most  respectable  callings,  —  living  in  them  as 
a  matter  of  necessity,  since  they  cannot  afford 
to  live  otherwise,  but  leaving  them  whenever 
wages  are  sufficient  to  admit  of  change. 

It  is  this  report  which  forms  the  summary 
of  all  the  work  that  has  preceded  it,  and  that 
gives  the  truest  exponent  of  all  present  condi- 
tions. It  is  only  necessary  to  add  to  it  the 
summaries  of  the  State  reports  at  other  points, 
to  see  the  aspect  of  the  question  as  a  whole; 
and  thus  we  are  ready  to  consider  by  its  aid  the 
general  rates  of  wages  and  of  the  status  of  the 
trades  of  every  nature  in  which  women  are  now 
engaged. 


126  Women   Wage- Earners. 


VI. 

PRESENT    WAGE-RATES    IN   THE   UNITED    STATES. 

UNDER  this  heading  it  is  proposed  to 
include,  not  only  the  trades  just  speci- 
fied as  coming  under  the  investigations  recorded 
in  " Working- Women  in  Large  Cities,"  but 
also  such  data  as  can  be  gleaned  from  all  the 
labor  reports  which  have  given  any  attention 
to  this  phase  of  the  labor  question.  Naturally, 
then,  we  turn  to  the  report  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Bureau  for  1881,  the  first  statement  of 
these  points,  and  compare  it  with  the  results 
obtained  in  the  last  report  from  Washington, 
as  well  as  with  the  returns  from  the  various 
States  where  investigation  of  the  question  has 
been  made. 

Exceptionally  favorable  conditions  would 
seem  to  belong  to  the  year  in  which  the  report 
for  1884  appeared.  The  financial  distress  of 
1877,  with  its  results,  had  passed.  New  indus- 
tries of  many  orders  had  opened  up  for  women, 


Present  Wage-Rates.  127 

and  trade  in  all  its  forms  called  for  workers 
and  gave  almost  constant  employ,  save  in  the 
ew  occupations  which  have  a  distinct  season, 
and  oblige  those  engaged  in  them  to  divide 
their  time  between  two  if  a  living  is  assured. 

A  distinction  must  at  once  be  made  in  the 
definition  of  earnings.  In  speaking  of  them, 
there  are  necessarily  three  designations,  — 
wages,  earnings,  and  income.  Wages  repre- 
sent the  actual  pay  per  week  at  the  time 
employed,  with  no  reference  to  the  number  of 
weeks'  employment  during  the  year.  Earnings 
are  the  total  receipts  for  any  year  from  wages. 
Thus,  for  example,  a  girl  is  paid  $5  a  week 
wages,  and  works  forty  weeks  of  her  year. 
Her  earnings  would  then  be  for  the  year  $200, 
though  her  wages  of  $5  per  week  would  indi- 
cate that  she  earned  $260  a  year;  while  in  fact 
her  average  weekly  earnings  would  be  for  the 
whole  year  $3.84.  Income  is  her  total  receipts 
for  the  year  from  all  sources :  wages,  extra 
work,  help  from  friends  or  from  investments; 
in  fact,  any  receipts  from  which  expenses  can 
be  paid. 

In  preparing  the  tables  of  these  reports,  the 
highest,  the  lowest,  the  average,  and  the  gen- 


128  Women   Wage- Earners. 

eral  average  were  brought  into  a  final  compari- 
son. Often  but  one  wage  is  given,  and  it 
then  becomes  naturally  both  highest  and  low- 
est; but  all  figures  are  made  to  indicate  an 
entire  occupation  or  branch  of  industry,  and 
not  a  few  high  or  low  paid  employees  in  that 
branch.  It  is  only  with  the  final  comparison 
that  we  are  able  to  deal,  the  reader  being 
referred  to  the  reports  themselves-  for  the 
invaluable  details  given  at  full  length  and 
including  many  hundred  pages. 

The  divisions  of  occupations  are  the  same 
as  those  of  the  tenth  census,  and  the  tables  are 
made  on  the  same  system.  To  determine  the 
general  conditions  for  the  twenty  thousand  at 
work,  it  was  necessary  to  have  accurate  detail 
as  to  one  thousand;  and,  in  fact,  1,032  were 
interviewed.  Directly  after  the  work  in  this 
direction  had  ended,  and  before  the  report  was 
ready  for  publication,  a  general  reduction  of 
ten  per  cent  in  wages  took  place,  and  this  must 
be  kept  in  mind  in  dealing  with  the  returns 
recorded.  In  this,  recapitulation  is  given  in 
full,  and,  as  will  be  seen,  includes  all  occupa- 
tions open  to  women. 


Present  Wage-Rates. 


129 


RECAPITULATION. 


BOSTON. 

OTHER   PARTS 
OF  MASS. 

OTHER 
STATES. 

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en 

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fe    OJ    S 

fc 

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£ 

<^y 

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^     W 

Government  and  professional 
Domestic  and  personal  office 

*i 

#557 
5  94 

5 
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533 

10 
21 

^628 
469 

Trade  and  transportation  •     . 
Manufactures  and  mechanical 
industries          

221 

1,293 

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All  occupations    .     >     .     .     . 

#669 

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108 

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84 

The  commissioners  of  the  New  York  State 
Bureau  of  Labor  followed  a  slightly  different 
method.  The  returns  are  no  less  minute,  but 
are  given  under  the  heading  of  each  trade,  two 
hundred  and  forty-seven  of  which  were  inves- 
tigated. The  wages  of  workwomen  for  the 
entire  year  run  from  $3.50  to  $4  a  week,  the 
general  average  not  being  given,  though  later 
returns  make  it  $5.85.  This  is,  however,  for 
skilled  labor;  and  as  a  vast  proportion  of 
women  workers  in  New  York  City  are  engaged 
in  sewing,  the  poorest  paid  of  all  industries, 
we  must  accept  the  first  figures  as  nearer  the 
truth.  An  expert  on  shirts  receives  as  high 
9 


1 30  Women   Wage-Earners. 

as  $12  a  week,  in  some  cases  $15;  but  in  slop 
work,  and  under  the  sweating-system,  wages 
fall  to  $2.50  or  $3  per  week,  and  at  times  less. 
Mr.  Peck  found  cloakmakers  working  on  the 
most  expensive  and  perfectly  finished  garments 
for  40  cents  a  day,  a  full  day's  pay  being  from 
50  to  60  cents.1  In  other  cases  a  day's  work 
brought  in  but  25  cents,  and  seventeen  over- 
alls of  blue  denim  gave  a  return  of  75  cents 
Two  and  a  half  cents  each  is  paid  for  the  mak- 
ing of  boys'  gingham  waists,  with  trimming  on 
neck  and  sleeves,  including  the  button-holes; 
and  the  women  who  made  these  sat  sixteen 
hours  at  the  sewing-machine,  with  a  result  oi 
25  cents.2 

This  was  for  irregular  work.  Women  em- 
ployed on  clothing  in  general,  working  for 
reputable  firms,  receive  from  $4. 50  to  $6  per 
week.  In  the  tobacco  manufacture,  in  which 
great  numbers  are  employed,  $9  is  the  lowest 
actual  earnings,  and  $20  the  highest  per  week. 
In  cigarettes,  the  pay  ranges  from  $4  to  $15 

1  Third  Annual  Report  of  New  York  Bureau  of  Labor, 
p.  162.     These  are  Mr.  Peck's  figures  ;  but  the  United  States 
report  gives  the  average  for  skilled  labor  as  $5-85  per  week, 
and  adds  that  the  unskilled  earns  far  less. 

2  Ibid.  p.  165. 


Present  Wage-Rates.  131 

per  week.  In  dry -goods,  with  ten  divisions  of 
employment,  —  cashiers,  bundle-girls,  sales- 
women, floor-walkers,  seamstresses,  cloak- 
makers,  cash-girls,  stock-girls,  milliners,  and 
sewing-girls,  — •  the  lowest  sum  per  week  is 
$1.50,  paid  to  cash-girls,  and  the  highest  paid 
to  floor-walkers,  $16.  On  the  east  side  of  the 
city,  shop  girls  receive  often  as  low  as  $3  per 
week;  in  a  few  cases  specified,  $2.50  per 
week.1 

In  laundry- work,  which  includes  several 
divisions,  wages  weekly  range  from  $7.50  to 
$10,  though  ironers  of  special  excellence  some- 
times make  from  $12  to  $15  per  week.  In 
millinery  the  wages  are  from  $6  to  $7  per  week. 
In  preserving  and  fruit-canning  wages  are 
from  $3.50  to  $10,  the  average  worker  earning 
about  $5  per  week.  Mr.  Peck  states  that  in 
fashion  trades  the  two  distinct  seasons  bring 
the  year's  earnings  to  about  six  months. 
"  Learners "  in  the  trades  coming  under  this 
head  receive  $1.50  per  week.  Saleswomen 
suffer  also  from  season  trade,  as  it  necessitates 
reduction  of  force.  The  better  class  of  workers 

1  New  York  Bureau  of  Statistics  of  Labor,  Third  Annual 
Report,  p.  27. 


132  Women   Wage- Earners. 

receive  from  $8  to  $15  per  week,  while  heads 
of  departments  range  from  $25  to  $50,  or  even 
higher,  for  exceptional  merit.  These  cases 
are  of  the  rarest,  however,  the  wage  as  an 
average  falling  below  that  of  Boston. 

But  three  State  reports  cover  the  same  dates 
as  these  already  quoted  (1885  anc*  1886),  - 
Connecticut,  New  Jersey,  and  California,  the 
former  being  for  1885.  In  this,  women's 
wages  are  given  incidentally  in  general  tables, 
and  must  be  disentangled  to  find  any  average. 
In  artificial  flowers  the  highest  wage  is  given 
as  $7,  and  the  lowest  $3,  the  average  being  $5. 
In  blankets  and  woollen  goods  the  highest  is 
$12.50  and  the  lowest  $6,  an  average  of  $9  per 
week.  In  factory  work  of  all  orders,  wages 
range  from  $6  to  $9. 75  per  week,  the  average 
paid  to  women  and  girls  being  $7. 50  per  week. 
In  clothing,  including  underwear,  wages  are 
from  $3  to  $15  per  week,  and  the  average 
annual  income  of  women  in  these  trades  is 
given  as  $300  per  year.  In  cloakmaking  the 
lowest  wage  is  $3,  the  highest  $9,  and  the 
average  $7. 50.  The  average  wage  for  San 
Francisco  is  given  as  $6.95,  and  that  for 'the 
whole  State  is  about  $6. 


Present  Wage-Rates.  133 

The  Connecticut  report  for  1885  gives 
simply  the  yearly  wage  in  various  trades. 
Reason  for  this  is  found  in  the  fact  that  it 
was  the  first,  and  could  thus  deal  with  the 
subject  only  tentatively.  Clothing  is  given 
as  producing  for  women  a  yearly  average 
of  $229,  and  shirts  $237.  Factory  work 
gave  $207,  paper  boxes  $227,  and  woollen 
goods  $245. 

In  the  report  for  1886,  the  lowest  average 
wage  is  reported  as  found  in  the  making  of 
wearing  apparel ;  but  the  average  for  the  State 
was  found  to  be  a  trifle  over  $6.  50  per  week. 

The  report  from  New  Jersey  makes  the  low- 
est wages  $3  per  week,  and  the  highest  $10, 
the  average  being  $5.  This  report  covers 
ground  more  fully  and  in  more  varied  direc- 
tions than  any  one  of  the  same  period,  though 
there  is  only  incidental  reference  to  the  work 
of  women  as  a  whole,  the  returns  being  given 
in  the  general  tables  of  wages.  Wages  and 
the  cost  of  living  are  compared,  and  the  chap- 
ter under  this  head  is  one  of  the  most  valuable 
in  the  summary  of  reports  as  a  whole.  The 
report  for  1886  gives  the  same  general  average 
of  wages  for  the  State,  but  adds  an  exhaustive 


1 34  Women   Wage-Earners. 

treatment  of  "Earnings,  Cost  of  Living,  and 
Prices." 

Maine  sent  out  its  first  annual  report  in  1887, 
and  gives  the  wages  of  women  workers  as  $3. 58 
for  the  lowest,  and  $15.20  for  the  highest,  the 
annual  earnings  ranging  from  $104  to  $520. 
The  report  from  the  same  State  for  1889  takes 
up  the  subject  of  working- women  in  detail, 
giving  their  home  or  boarding  conditions, 
sanitary  conditions,  their  own  remarks  on 
trades,  wages,  etc.,  and  the  aspect  of  their 
labor  as  a  whole.  The  average  wage  remains 
the  same. 

Rhode  Island,  in  its  Third  Annual  Report 
for  1889,  under  the  direction  of  Commissioner 
Almon  K.  Goodwin,  gives  the  average  wage 
for  the  State  as  $5.87,  and  devotes  the  bulk  of 
its  space  to  working-women,  with  full  returns 
from  the  entire  State. 

For  the  same  year  California,  by  its  labor 
commissioner,  Mr.  John  J.  Tobin,  gives  an 
equally  exhaustive  statement  of  the  conditions 
of  women  wage-earners  in  that  State.  The 
lowest  weekly  wage  given  is  $5,  and  the  high- 
est $11.  Plain  cooks  receive  from  $25  to  $40 
a  month  with  board  and  lodging,  and  domestic 


Present  Wage-Rates.  135 

servants  from  $15  to  $25  with  board.  In 
cloak-making  the  lowest  wage  is  $3,  and  the 
highest  $7.50;  and  in  shirt -making  the  lowest 
is  $2. 50,  and  the  highest  $6.  General  cloth- 
ing and  underwear  range  from  $4.  50  to  $6,  and 
other  trades  average  a  trifle  higher  wage  than 
in  New  England.  The  chapter  on  domestic 
service  is  suggestive  and  important,  and  the 
whole  treatment  makes  the  report  a  necessity 
to  all  who  would  understand  the  situation  in 
detail.  This,  however,  is  so  true  of  all  that 
have  touched  upon  the  subject  that  it  appears 
invidious  to  single  out  any  one  alone.  They 
must  be  taken  together.  With  each  year  the 
scientific  value  of  each  increases,  and  there 
appears  to  be  distinct  emulation  among  the 
commissioners  as  to  which  shall  embody  the 
most  in  the  returns  made  and  the  general 
treatment  of  the  whole. 

The  first  report  from  Colorado,  issued  in  1888, 
Mr.  James  Rice  commissioner,  devotes  a  chap- 
ter to  women  wage-earners,  with  an  additional 
one  on  domestic  service  and  its  drawbacks. 
The  average  wage  for  the  State  is  given  as 
$6',  and  the  commissioner  states  that  notwith- 
standing the  general  impression  that  higher 


1 36  Women    Wage- Earners. 

wages  are  paid  in  Colorado  than  at  any  other 
point  save  California,  actual  returns  show  that 
the  average  sums  in  several  occupations  are 
less  than  that  paid  to  persons  similarly  em- 
ployed in  cities  along  the  Atlantic  seaboard. 

Kansas,  in  its  fifth  annual  report  issued  in 
1889,  gives  a  section  to  working-women.  The 
commissioner,  Mr.  Frank  Betton,  considers 
the  returns  imperfect,  great  difficulty  having 
been  experienced  in  securing  them.  The  aver- 
age weekly  wage  is  given  as  $5. 17.  Expenses 
are  carefully  analyzed,  and  there  is  a  report  of 
the  remarks  of  employers,  as  well  as  from  a 
number  of  those  employed. 

In  the  report  from  Iowa  for  1887,  Commis- 
sioner Hutchins  laments  that  so  few  women 
have  been  willing  to  fill  out  blanks  of  returns. 
The  wage  returns  given  range  from  $3.75  to 
$9.  The  report  for  1889  makes  mention  of 
continued  difficulties  in  securing  returns,  and 
gives  the  annual  earnings  of  women  as  from 
$100  to  $440.  The  tables  include  cost  of 
living  and  many  other  essential  particulars. 

Wisconsin,  in  the  report  for  1884,  has 
a  chapter  on  working-girls.  It  gives  the  aver- 
age weekly  income  in  personal  services  as 


Present  Wage- Rates.  137 

$5. 25  ;  in  trade,  $4. 18 ;  in  manufactures,  $5. 22, 
and  the  general  average  for  the  year  as  $5. 17. 

Minnesota,  whose  first  report,  under  the 
supervision  of  Commissioner  John  Lamb,  ap- 
peared in  1888  for  the  years  1887  and  1888, 
found  little  or  no  room  for  statistics,  but 
included  a  chapter  on  working-women,  with  a 
few  admirable  tables  of  age,  nativity,  home  and 
working  conditions,  etc.  Minute  inquiry  was 
made  as  to  cost  of  living,  clothing,  etc.  ;  and 
the  results  form  a  chapter  of  painful  interest, 
that  on  domestic  service  being  equally  sugges- 
tive. Clothing,  as  usual,  represents  the  lowest 
average  wage,  $3.66  per  week,  the  highest 
being  $8. 50,  and  the  general  average  a  trifle 
over  $6. 

Michigan,  in  1890,  under  its  labor  commis- 
sioner, Mr.  Henry  A.  Robinson,  added  to  the 
list  one  of  the  most  thorough  studies  yet  made 
of  general  conditions.  The  agents  of  the 
bureau,  trained  for  the  work,  made  personal 
visits  to  working-women  and  girls  to  the  num- 
ber of  13,436,  this  representing  one  hundred 
and  thirty-seven  distinct  industries  and  three 
hundred  and  seventy-eight  occupations.  The 
blanks  prepared  for  filling  out  contained  one 


138  Women   Wage- Earners. 

hundred  and  twenty-nine  questions,  classified  as 
follows:  Social,  28;  industrial,  12;  hours  of 
labor,  14;  economic,  54;  sanitary,  21,  with  seven 
others  as  to  dress,  societies,  church  attendance, 
with  remarks  and  suggestions  from  the  workers 
themselves.  As  usual,  in  such  cases,  employers 
here  and  there  objected  to  any  investigation, 
fearing  labor  organizations  were  at  the  bottom 
of  it;  but  the  majority  allowed  free  examina- 
tion. The  report  is  very  full,  and  gives  a  clear 
and  full  view  of  the  individual  lives  of  this 
body  of  women  workers.  The  average  wage 
proved  to  be  $4.81  per  week,  the  average 
income  for  the  year  being  $216.45.  The  aver- 
age income  of  teachers  and  those  in  public 
positions  was  $457.27. 

This  is  the  showing,  State  by  State,  so  far  as 
bureaus  have  reported.  Many  States  have  made 
no  move  in  this  direction;  but  interest  is  now 
thoroughly  aroused,  and  the  subject  is  likely 
to  find  treatment  in  all,  this  depending  some- 
what, however,  on  the  character  of  the  State 
industries  and  the  numbers  at  work  in  each. 
Manufacturing  necessarily  brings  with  it  con- 
ditions that  in  the  end  compel  inquiry;  and 
for  most  of  the  Southern  States  such  industries 


Present  Wage- Rates. 


139 


are  still  new,  while  the  West  has  not  yet  found 
the  same  occasion  as  the  East  for  full  knowl- 
edge of  the  problems  involved  in  woman's  work 
and  wages. 

We  come  now  to  the  most  elaborate  and  far- 
reaching  inquiry  yet  made,  —  the  work  of  the 
United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  under  Com- 
missioner Wright,  entitled  "  Working- Women 
in  Large  Cities."  Twenty-two  of  these  are 
reported  upon  after  one  of  the  most  rigorous 
examinations  ever  undertaken;  and  the  aver- 
age wage  of  each  tallies  with  the  rates  given 
in  the  States  to  which  they  belong  Taken 
alphabetically,  the  list  is  as  follows:  — 


AVERAGE    WEEKLY    EARNINGS,   BY   CITIES. 


Atlanta $4.95 

Baltimore 4.18 

Boston 5.64 

Brooklyn 5.76 

Buffalo 4.27 

Charleston,  S.  C.       .     .  4.22 

Chicago 5-74 

Cincinnati 4.50 

Cleveland 4.63 

Indianapolis      ....  4.57 

Louisville 4.51 

Newark 5.20 


New  Orleans  $4.3 1 

New  York      .  5.85 

Philadelphia  .  5.34 

Providence     .  5.51 

Richmond       .  3.83 

St.  Louis 5.19 

St.  Paul 6.62 

San  Francisco    .     .     .  6.91 

San  Jose 6.1 1 

Savannah 4.90 


All  Cities 


5-24 


In  addition  to  these  figures,  it  seems  well  to 
give  the  average  yearly  earnings  of  women  in 


140  Women  Wage- Earners. 

some  of  the  most  profitable  industries,  those 
being  chosen  which  are  seldom  affected  by 
"seasons  " :  — 

Artificial  flowers,  $277.53;  awnings  and 
tents,  $276.46;  bookbinding,  $271.31;  boots 
and  shoes,  $286.60;  candy,  $213.59;  car- 
pets, $298.53;  cigar  boxes,  $267.36;  cigar 
factory,  $294.66;  cigarette  factory,  $266.12; 
cloak  factory,  $291.76;  clothing  factory, 
$248.36;  cotton-mills,  $228.32;  dressmaking, 
$278.37;  dry-goods  stores,  $368.84;  jewelry 
factory,  $285.20;  laundry,  $314.75;  mattress 
factory,  $263.80;  men's  furnishing-goods  fac- 
tory, $232.24;  millinery,  $345-955  paper-box 
factory,  $240.47;  plug-tobacco  factory,  $235.67; 
printing-office,  $300;  skirt  factory,  $265.40; 
smoking-tobacco  factory,  $238.70. 

These,  so  far  as  they  have  been  collected 
and  tabulated  by  the  various  labor  bureaus,  are 
the  returns  for  the  United  States  as  a  whole. 
The  reports  for  the  following  years  of  1891  and 
1892  were  expected  to  be  far  more  general,  but 
this  has  not  proved  to  be  the  case. 


Present  Wage- Rates. 


141 


AVERAGE   WAGE   PER  STATE. 

Maine $5-5O 

Massachusetts 6.68 

Connecticut 6.50 

Rhode  Island 5.87 

New  York 5.85 

New  Jersey 5.00 

California 6.00 

Colorado 6.00 

Kansas 5.17 

Wisconsin 5.17 

Minnesota 6.00 

All  cities 5.24 


142  Women   Wage- Earners. 


VII. 

GENERAL  CONDITIONS  FOR  ENGLISH  WORKERS. 

SO  far  as  opportunity  is  concerned,  it  is  the 
United  States  only  that  offers  a  practically 
unlimited  field  to  women  workers,  to  whom 
some  four  hundred  trades  and  occupations  are 
now  open.  Comparison  with  other  countries 
is,  however,  essential,  if  we  would  judge  fairly 
of  conditions  as  a  whole ;  and  thus  we  turn  first 
to  that  other  English-speaking  race,  and  the 
English  worker  at  home.  At  once  we  are 
faced  with  the  impossibility  of  gathering  much 
more  than  surface  indications,  since  in  no  other 
country  is  there  any  counterpart  to  our  admir- 
able system  of  investigation  and  tabulation,  each 
year  more  and  more  systematic  and  thorough. 
In  spite  of  the  fact  that  factory  laws  had  their 
birth  in  England,  and  that  the  whole  system  of 
child  labor  —  the  early  horrors  of  which  find 
record  in  thousands  of  pages  of  special  reports 
from  inspectors  appointed  by  government  — • 


Conditions  for  English   Workers.     143 

has  been  through  their  means  modified  and 
improved,  there  are,  even  now,  no  sources  of 
information  as  to  numbers  at  work  or  the  char- 
acteristics of  special  industries.  The  census 
must  be  the  chief  dependence;  and  here  we 
find  the  enormous  proportions  to  which  the 
employment  of  women  has  attained. 

In  1 86 1  these  returns  gave  for  England  and 
Wales  1,024,277  women  at  work.  Twenty  years 
later  the  number  had  doubled,  half  a  million 
being  found  in  London  alone.  This  does  not 
include  all,  since,  as  Mr.  Charles  Booth  notes 
in  his  recent  "  Labor  and  Life  of  the  People," 
many  employed  women  do  not  return  their 
employments. 

Mr.  Booth's  work  is  a  purely  private  enter- 
prise, assisted  by  devoted  co-workers,  and  by 
trained  experts  employed  at  his  own  expense. 
For  the  final  estimate  must  be  added  general 
census  returns,  and  the  recent  reports  on  the 
sweating-system  in  London  and  other  English 
cities. 

Beginning  with  factory  operatives  and  their 
interests,  nothing  is  easier  than  to  follow  the 
course  of  legislation  on  their  behalf.  The 
"Life  of  Lord  Shaftesbury"  is,  in  itself,  the 


144  Women   Wage- Earners. 

history  of  the  movement  for  the  protection  of 
women  and  children,  —  a  movement  begun  early 
in  the  present  century,  and  made  imperative  by 
the  hideous  disclosures  of  oppression  and  out- 
rage, not  only  among  factory  operatives,  but 
the  women  and  children  in  mining  and  other 
industries.  Active  as  were  his  efforts  and  those 
of  his  colleagues,  it  is  only  within  a  generation 
that  the  fruit  of  their  labor  is  plainly  seen.  As 
late  as  1844,  at  the  time  Engel's  notable  book 
on  "  The  Condition  of  the  Working-Class  in 
England "  appeared,  the  labor  of  children  of 
four  and  five  years  was  still  permitted ;  and 
women  and  children  alike  worked  in  mines,  in 
brickyards,  and  other  exposed  and  dangerous 
employments  for  the  merest  pittance.  The 
pages  of  Engel's  book  swarm  with  incidents 
of  individual  and  class  misery;  and  while  he 
admits  fully,  in  the  appendix  prepared  in  1886, 
that  many  of  the  evils  enumerated  have  dis- 
appeared, he  adds  that  for  the  mass  of  workers 
"  the  state  of  misery  and  insecurity  in  which 
they  live  now  is  as  low  as  ever,  perhaps  lower." 
Year  by  year,  in  spite  of  constant  agitation 
and  the  unceasing  effort  of  Lord  Shaftesbury  to 
alter  the  worst  abuses,  these  evils  remained,  and 


Conditions  for  English   Workers.     145 

faced  the  examiner  into  social  problems,  slight 
ameliorations  here  and  there  serving  chiefly  to 
throw  into  darker  relief  the  misery  of  the  situa- 
tion. Not  only  the  philanthropist  but  officials 
joined  hands ;  and  in  the  proceedings  of  the 
British  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science,  each  year  added  to  the  number  and 
importance  of  the  protests  against  an  iniqui- 
tous system. 

Chief  among  these  protests  ranked  that 
against  the  overwork  of  pregnant  mothers, 
through  which,  as  one  of  the  most  able  oppo- 
nents of  existing  evils,  W.  Stanley  Jevons,  wrote, 
"  infinite,  irreparable  wrong  is  done  to  helpless 
children,"  adding  that  the  appalling  infant  mor- 
tality of  the  manufacturing  districts  attracted 
far  less  attention  and  interest  in  the  public 
mind  than  the  death  of  a  single  murderer. 
At  nearly  the  same  time  Mr.  F.  W.  Lowndes 
gave  the  fruit  of  long  research  in  a  paper  read 
before  the  British  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science,  entitled  "  The  Destruction  of 
Infancy ; "  J  and  this  was  supplemented  by  testi- 

1  "  The  Destruction  of  Infants,"  by  Mr.  F.  W.  Lowndes, 
M.  R.  C.  S  ,  British    Association    for  the    Advancement    of 
Science,  Report  for  1870,  p.  586. 
10 


146  Women   Wage-Earners. 

mony  from  experts,  the  Statistical  Society  add- 
ing weighty  testimony  to  the  same  effect.1 

From  these  and  other  official  testimony  it  was 
found  that  in  nineteen  manufacturing  towns,2 
out  of  1,023,896  children  [Forty-first  Report  of 
the  Registrar-General,  p.  36]  born,  82,259  died 
in  infancy.  The  rate  of  mortality  varied  from 
59.4  in  Portsmouth  through  an  ascending  scale, 
being  in  London  78.6,  and  in  Liverpool  the 
almost  incredible  proportion  of  103.6*  per  thou- 
sand. In  a  rural  country  infant  mortality  does 
not  exceed  from  thirty-five  to  forty  per  thousand. 
The  Report  of  the  Select  Committee  on  the 
Protection  of  Infant  Life  was  filled  with  details 
so  horrible  that  only  the  sworn  testimony  of 
experts  made  them  credited  at  all.3 

Dr.  Hunter's  report  on  rural  mortality  shows 
that  when  mothers  are  employed  in  what  are 
known  as  "  field  gangs  "  for  out-of-door  work, 
leaving  their  children  in  the  charge  of  old 

1  Journal  of  the  Statistical  Society,  Sept.,  1870,  vol.  xxxiii. 
pp.  323-326. 

2  Parliamentary  Paper,  No.  372,  July  20,  1871  :  Collected 
Series,  vol.  vii.  p.  606. 

8  Sixth  Report  of  the  Medical  Officer  of  the  Privy  Council, 
1863,  pp.  454-462.  Parliamentary  Paper,  1864,  No.  3,416, 
vol.  xxviii. 


Conditions  for  English   Workers.     147 

women  too  weak  for  such  labor  as  their  own, 
that  infants  died  like  sheep.  Godfrey's  Cordial 
was  the  chief  engine  of  destruction ;  the  corps 
of  inspectors  who  reported  to  the  Government 
finding  infants  in  all  stages  of  prostration,  from 
the  overdoses  of  the  popular  specific  warranted 
to  render  any  attention  from  nurse  or  mother 
quite  unnecessary. 

As  to  the  direct  effects  of  factory  or  out-door 
labor  on  pregnant  mothers,  out  of  10,000  births 
among  factory  mothers,  there  died  from  1863-75 
of  children  under  one  year  of  age,  in  Ports- 
mouth 1,459,  Liverpool  2,189,  London  1,591, 
and  other  towns  with  textile  industries  1,940. 
Statistics  taken  in  Germany  and  at  other  points 
all  went  to  show  that  in  the  matter  of  out-door 
labor  at  the  harvest  season,  when  all  women- 
workers  are  in  the  fields,  the  deaths  of  nursing 
infants  were  three  times  as  great  as  in  the 
other  nine  months. 

For  details  and  deduction  from  these  facts 
the  reader  is  referred  to  the  reports  themselves. 
"  I  go  so  far,"  wrote  Mr.  Jevons,  "  as  to  advocate 
the  ultimate  complete  exclusion  of  mothers  of 
children  under  the  age  of  three  years  from 
factories  and  workshops ; "  and  his  conviction 


1 48  Women   Wage-Earners. 

voiced  that  of  every  examiner  into  the  situation 
as  it  stood  at  that  time. 

The  Factory  and  Workshop  Act  came  as  par- 
tial solution  to  the  many  problems ;  and  though 
regarded  by  the  working-class  as  a  mass  of  arbi- 
trary restrictions  whose  usefulness  they  denied 
and  in  whose  benefits  they  had  no  faith,  it  has 
actually  proved  the  Great  Charter  of  the  work- 
ing-classes. There  are  points  still  to  be  altered, — 
modifications  made  necessary  by  the  constant 
change  in  methods  of  production,  as  well  as  in 
the  enlarging  sense  of  the  ethical  principles 
involved.  But  our  own  legislation  is  still  far 
behind  it  at  many  points,  and  its  work  is  done 
efficiently  and  thoroughly.  Laws  had  been 
made,  one  by  one,  fifteen  standing  on  the 
Statute  Books  in  1878,  when  all  were  abrogated, 
their  essential  features  being  codified  in  the 
Act  as  it  stands  to-day,  —  a  genuine  industrial 
code  in  one  hundred  and  seven  sections. 

Up  to  this  date  violation  of  its  provisions 
had  been  incessant;  but  determined  enforcement 
brought  about  a  uniform  working  day,  protec- 
tion of  dangerous  machinery,  proper  ventilation, 
improved  sanitary  conditions,  an  interdict  on 
Sunday  labor,  and  many  other  reforms  in  ad- 


Conditions  for  English   Workers.     149 


ministration.  Fourteen  years  have  seen  next 
to  no  change  in  the  Act,  and  the  condition  of 
women  and  child  workers  in  factories  and 
workshops  has  come  to  be  regarded  as  the  best 
that  modern  systems  of  production  admit 
These  workers,  whose  numbers  now  mount  to 
hundreds  of  thousands,  are  a  class  apart,  and 
for  them  legislation  has  accomplished  all  that 
legislation  seems  able  to  do  in  alleviating  social 
miseries.  Content  with  the  results  achieved, 
need  of  further  effort  in  other  directions  failed 
of  recognition,  and  apathy  became  the  general 
condition. 

It  was  during  this  season  of  repose  that 
the  public  mind  received  first  one  shock  and 
then  another.  "  The  Bitter  Cry  of  Outcast 
London "  appalled  all  who  read ;  and  leaf  by 
leaf  the  new  book  of  revelations  disclosed  always 
deeper  depths  of  misery  and  want  among  all 
workers  with  the  needle,  —  from  the  days  of 
the  fig-leaf  the  symbol  of  grinding  toil  and 
often  hopeless  misery. 

Not  alone  from  professional  agitators,  so 
called,  but  from  philanthropists  of  every  order, 
came  the  cry  for  help.  The  Factory  and  Work- 
shop Act  had  not  touched  home  labor.  The 


150  Women   Wage- Earners. 

sweating-system,  born  of  modern  conditions, 
had  risen  unsuspected,  and  ran  riot,  not  only 
in  East  London,  but  even  in  back  alleys  of  the 
sacred  west,  and  in  the  swarming  southwest 
region  beyond  London  Bridge.  The  London 
"  Lancet,"  the  most  authoritative  medical  journal 
of  the  world,  conservative  as  it  has  always  been, 
has  at  last  found  that  it  must  join  hands  with 
socialist  and  anarchist,  "  scientific  "  or  otherwise, 
with  philanthropists  of  every  order,  against 
the  new  evil  and  its  horrors.  Rich  and  poor 
alike  were  involved.  The  virus  of  the  deadly 
conditions  under  which  the  garments  took  shape 
was  implanted  in  every  stitch  that  held  them 
together,  and  transferred  itself  to  the  wearer. 
Not  only  from  London,  but  from  every  city  of 
England,  came  the  same  cry;  and  the  public 
faced  suddenly  an  abyss  of  misery  whose  ex- 
istence had  been  unknown  and  unsuspected,  and 
the  causes  of  which  seemed  inexplicable. 

For  many  months  of  the  year  just  ended 
(1892)  parliamentary  investigation  has  gone  on. 
Report  after  report  has  been  made  to  its  com- 
mittees ;  and  as  testimony  from  accredited 
sources  poured  in,  incidentally  a  flood  of  light 
has  been  let  in  upon  many  forms  of  work  out- 


Conditions  for  English   Workers.     151 


side  the  clothing-manufacturer,  To-day,  in 
bur  huge  volumes  of  some  thousand  pages  each, 
ne  may  read  the  testimony,  heart-sickening  in 

ery  detail,  —  a  noted  French  political  econo- 

ist,  the  Comte  d'Haussonville,  describing  it,  in 
a  recent  article  in  "  La  Revue  des  deux  Mondes  " 
as  "  The  Martyrology  of  English  Industries." 

In  such  conditions  inspection  is  inoperative. 
An  army  of  inspectors  would  not  suffice  where 
every  house  represents  from  one  to  a  dozen 
workshops  under  its  roof,  in  each  of  which  sani- 
tary conditions  are  defied,  and  the  working  day 
made  more  often  fourteen  and  sixteen  hours 
than  twelve.  Even  for  this  day  a  starvation 
wage  is  the  rule  ;  the  sewing-machine  operative, 
for  example,  while  earning  a  wage  of  fifteen  or 
eighteen  pence,  furnishing  her  own  thread  and 
being  forced  to  pay  rental  on  the  machine. 

A  portion  of  a  wage  table  is  given  here  as 
illustrative  of  rates,  and  used  as  a  reference  table 
before  the  preparation  of  Mr.  Booth's  book, 
which  gives  much  the  same  figures  :  — 

Making  paper  bags,  4^.  to  $\d.  per  thousand; 
possible  earnings,  55-.  to  6s.  per  week. 

Button-holes,  $d.  a  dozen ;  possible  earnings,  8s. 
a  week. 


152  Women   Wage- Earners. 

Shirts,  2d.  each,  worker  finding  her  own  cotton; 
can  get  six  done  between  8  A.  M.  and  1 1  p.  M. 

Sack  sewing,  6d.  for  twenty-five ;  8</.  to  is.  6d.  per 
hundred.  Possible  earnings,  8-$-.  per  week. 

Pill-box  making,  9^.  for  thirty-six  gross;  possible 
earnings,  Ss.  per  week. 

Shirt  button-hole  making,  \d.  a  dozen;  can  do 
three  or  four  dozen  a  day. 

Whip- making,  is.  a  dozen ;  can  do  a  dozen  a  day. 

Trousers  finishing,  $d.  to  5^.  each,  finding  one's 
own  cotton ;  can  do  four  a  day. 

Shirt-finishing,  $d.  to  $d.  a  dozen  ;  possible  earnings, 
6s.  a  week. 

Outside  of  the  cities,  where  the  needle  is 
almost  the  sole  refuge  of  the  unskilled  worker, 
every  industry  is  invaded.  A  recent  report  as 
to  English  nail  and  chain  workers  shows  hours 
and  general  conditions  to  be  almost  intolerable, 
while  the  wage  averages  eightpence  a  day.  In 
the  mines,  despite  steady  action  concerning 
them,  women  are  working  by  hundreds  for  the 
same  rate.  In  short,  from  every  quarter  comes 
in  repeated  testimony  that  the  majority  of  work- 
ing Englishwomen  are  struggling  for  a  liveli- 
hood ;  that  a  pound  a  week  is  a  fortune,  and 
that  the  majority  live  on  a  wage  below  subsist- 
ence point. 


i 


. 


Conditions  for  English   Workers.     153 

The  enormous  influx  of  foreign  population 
is  partly  responsible  for  these  conditions,  but 
far  less  than  is  popularly  supposed  ;  since  the 
ews,  most  often  accused,  are  in  many  cases 
uster  employers  than  the  Christians,  and  suffer 
from  the  same  causes.  For  all  alike,  legislation 
is  powerless  to  reach  certain  ingrained  evils, 
and  the  recent  sweating-commission  ended  its 
report  with  the  words: — 


"  We  express  the  firm  hope  that  the  faithful  exposure 
f  the  evils  that  we  have  been  called  upon  to  unveil, 
will  have  the  effect  of  leading  capitalists  to  lend  greater 
attention  to  the  conditions  under  which  work  is  done, 
which  furnishes  the  merchandise  they  demand.  When 
legislation  has  attained  the  limit  beyond  which  it  can 
no  longer  be  useful,  the  amelioration  of  the  condition 
of  workers  can  result  only  from  the  increasing  moral 
sense  of  those  who  employ  them." 

This  conclusion,  it  may  be  added,  is  in  full 
accord  with  that  given  in  the  Encyclical  of  Pope 
Leo  XIII. ,  as  well  as  with  that  of  our  most 
serious  workers  at  home ;  our  own  government 
examination  into  the  sweating-system,  now  em- 
bodied in  a  Congressional  Report  accessible 
to  all,  being  simply  confirmation  of  every  point 
made  in  that  for  England.  As  a  summary  of 


154  Women   Wage- Earners. 

many  working  conditions  in  London,  I  add  part 
of  a  report  made  by  an  indefatigable  student  of 
social  conditions,  Margaret  Harkness,  associated 
now  with  Mr,  Charles  Booth,  and  as  able  an  ob- 
server as  her  cousin  and  co-worker,  Miss  Beatrice 
Potter,  whose  report  on  the  sweating-system 
makes  part  of  Mr.  Booth's  first  volume : l  - 

"  I  have,  for  the  last  six  months,  been  attempting 
to  find  out  something  about  the  hours  and  wages  of 
girls  who  work  at  various  trades  in  the  city.  Had  I 
known  how  difficult  the  task  would  be,  I  should 
probably  never  have  attempted  it.  Last  time  I  heard 
of  Mr.  Besant  he  was  sitting  in  his  office,  overwhelmed 
with  figures  and  facts.  He  said  then  that  he  did  not 
expect  to  publish  anything  about  the  work  of  girls  and 
women  in  the  United  Kingdom  under  a  year  or  eigh- 
teen months.  I  do  not  wonder  at  it.  Apart  from 
the  method  of  his  inquiry,  I  know  how  exceedingly 
difficult  it  is  to  arrive  at  the  truth ;  the  tact  and 
patience  it  needs  to  make  such  investigations. 
Employees  and  employers  take  very  different  views  of 
the  same  circumstances ;  one  must  listen  to  both,  and 
then  split  the  difference. 

"  There  are  at  the  present  time  absolutely  no  figures 
to  go  upon  if  one  wishes  to  learn  something  about  the 
hours  and  wages  of  girls  who  follow  certain  occupations 

1  Labor  and  Life  of  the  People,  voL  i. :  East  London.  Edited 
by  Charles  Booth,  p.  564. 


= 


Conditions  for  English    Workers.     155 

in  the  city.  The  factory  inspectors  (admirable  men, 
but  very  much  overworked)  come,  with  the  most 
naive  delight,  to  visit  any  person  who  has  information 
to  give  about  the  people  over  whose  interests  they  are 
supposed  to  watch  with  fatherly  interest.  Clergymen 
shake  their  heads,  or  refer  one  to  homes  and  charities. 
One  has  to  find  out  the  truth  for  one's  self.  Both 

ployers  and  employees  must  be  visited.  Even 
then  one  must  wait  days  and  weeks  to  inspire  them 
with  confidence,  for  thus  alone  can  one  obtain  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  things  as  they  really  are,  and 
arrive  at  facts  unbiassed  by  prejudice. 

"  So  far  I  have  found  that  there  are,  at  least,  two 
hundred  trades  at  which  girls  work  in  the  city.  Some 
employ  hundreds  of  hands,  and  some  only  fifty  or  sixty. 
Printers  give  the  greatest  amount  of  work,  perhaps ; 
but  there  are  at  least  two  hundred  other  occupations 
in  which  girls  earn  a  living;  namely,  brush-makers, 
button-makers,  cigarette-makers,  electric-light  fitters, 
fur-workers,  India-rubber-stamp  machinist,  magic- 
lantern-slide  makers,  perfumers,  portmanteau-makers, 
spectacle-makers,  surgical-instrument  makers,  tie- 
makers,  etc.  These  girls  can  be  roughly  divided 
into  two  classes,  —  those  who  earn  from  8s.  to  145-., 
and  those  who  earn  from  \s.  to  8s.  per  week.  Taking 
slack  time  into  consideration,  it  is,  I  think,  safe  to  say 
that  los.  is  the  average  weekly  wage  of  the  first  class, 
and  4/.  6d.  that  of  the  second  class.  Their  weekly 
wage  often  falls  below  this,  and  sometimes  rises  above 


156  Women   Wage- Earners. 

it.  The  hours  are  almost  invariably  from  8  A.  M.  to  7 
P.M.,  with  one  hour  for  dinner  and  a  half- holiday  on 
Saturday.  I  know  few  cases  in  which  such  girls  work 
less ;  a  good  many  in  which  over-time  reaches  to  ten 
or  eleven  at  night ;  a  few  in  which  over-time  means 
all  night.  There  is  little  to  choose  between  the  two 
classes.  The  second  are  allowed  by  their  employers 
to  wear  old  clothes  and  boots ;  the  first  must  make  '  a 
genteel  appearance/ 

"  I  often  hear  rich  women  say,  l  Oh,  working-girls 
cannot  be  very  poor ;  they  wear  such  smart  feathers.' 
If  these  women  knew  how  the  girls  have  to  stint  in 
underclothing  and  food  in  order  to  make  what  their 
employers  call  '  a  genteel  appearance,'  I  think  they 
would  pass  quite  another  verdict.  I  will  give  two 
typical  cases  :  A  girl  living  just  over  Blackfriars  Bridge, 
in  one  small  room,  for  which  she  pays  51.,  earns  IO.T. 
a  week  in  a  printer's  business.  She  works  from  8  A.  M. 
to  6  P.  M.,  then  returns  home  to  do  all  the  washing, 
cleaning,  cooking,  etc.,  that  is  necessary  in  a  one-room 
establishment.  She  has  an  invalid  mother  dependent 
on  her  efforts,  and  is  out-patient  herself  at  one  of  the 
London  hospitals.  She  was  sixteen  last  Christmas. 
Another  girl,  who  lives  in  two  cellars  near  Lisson 
Grove,  with  father,  mother,  and  six  brothers  and 
sisters,  earns  3$.  6d,  a  week  in  a  well  known  factory. 
She  is  seventeen  years  old,  but  does  not  look  more 
than  ten  or  eleven.  Every  morning  she  walks  a  mile 
to  her  work,  arriving  at  eight  o'clock ;  every  evening 


: 


Conditions  for  English   Workers.     1 5  7 

e  walks  a  mile  back,  reaching  home  about  seven 
o'clock.  If  she  arrives  at  the  factory  five  minutes 
late,  she  is  fined  ^d.  If  she  stays  away  a  whole  day, 
she  is  '  drilled,'  —  that  is,  kept  without  work  a  whole 

eek.  Her  father  has  been  out  of  employment  for 
six  months  ;  so  her  weekly  3^.  6d.  goes  into  the  family 
purse.  Her  food  consists  of  three  slices  of  bread  and 
butter,  which  she  takes  to  the  factory  for  dinner; 
one  slice  of  bread  and  butter  and  some  weak  tea  for 
supper  and  breakfast.  These  cases  are  not  picked. 
They  are  to  be  found  scattered  all  over  London. 
Many  and  many  a  family  is  at  the  present  time  being 
kept  by  the  labor  of  one  or  two  such  girls,  who  can  at 
the  most  earn  a  few  shillings.  When  one  thinks  what 
the  life  of  a  young  girl  is  in  happy  families,  all  the 
joyousness  of  which  she  is  capable,  until  sorrow  sets 
its  seal  on  her,  one's  heart  aches  for  the  sad  lives  of 
these  girls  in  the  city. 

'And  still  her  voice  comes  ringing 

Across  the  soft  still  air, 
And  still  I  hear  her  singing, 
"  Oh,  life,  thou  art  most  fair !  "  ' 

"  A  young  girl  is  capable  of  feeling  in  one  brief 
hour  more  intense  delight  than  a  boy  of  her  age 
experiences  in  a  fortnight.  Yet  all  this  joyousness  is 
ruthlessly  stamped  upon  by  competition,  and  thou- 
sands of  girls  in  London  have  no  enjoyment  except  to 
gaze  at  monstrosities  in  penny  gaffs,  or  to  dance  on  dirty 


158  Women   Wage-  Earners . 

pavements ;  and  generally  these  poor  things  are  too 
tired  even  to  do  that.  It  is  strange  that  the  public 
take  so  little  interest  in  these  girls,  considering  they 
must  become  mothers  of  future  citizens.  *  The  youth 
of  a  nation  are  the  trustees  of  posterity.'  What  sort 
of  daughters  are  these  girls  with  their  pinched  faces 
and  stunted  bodies  likely  to  give  England?  What 
will  posterity  say  of  the  girl  labor  that  now  goes  on 
in  the  city?  I  have  seen  strong  men  weeping  because 
they  have  no  bread  to  give  their  children ;  I  -know 
at  the  London  docks  chains  have  been  replaced  by 
wooden  barriers,  because  starving  men  behind  pressed 
so  hard  on  starving  men  in  front,  that  the  latter  were 
nearly  cut  in  two  by  the  iron  railings  ;  I  have  watched 
a  contractor  mauled  when  he  had  no  work  to  give, 
and  have  myself  been  nearly  killed  by  a  brick-bat 
that  was  hurled  at  a  contractor's  head  by  a  man  whose 
family  was  starving :  but  I  deliberately  say  of  all  the 
victims  of  our  present  competitive  system  I  pity  these 
girls  the  most.  They  are  so  fragile.  Honest  work  is 
made  for  them  almost  impossible ;  and  if  they  slip, 
no  one  gives  them  a  second  chance,  they  are  kicked 
and  spat  upon  by  the  public.  I  know  that  the  girl- 
labor  question  is  but  a  portion  of  the  larger  labor 
question,  that  nothing  can  be  done  for  them  at 
present ;  but  I  wish  that  they  were  not  the  victims  of 
the  laissez-faire  policy  in  two  ways  instead  of  one ; 
I  wish  that  their  richer  sisters  were  not  so  terribly 
apathetic  about  them." 


Conditions  for  English   Workers.     159 

For  Scotland,  industries,  wages,  and  general 
:onditions  are  much  the  same  as  those  of  Eng- 
land. Factory  life  has  been  at  many  points 
improved,  and  the  superior  thrift  and  education 
of  the  working-class  shows  in  the  large  amount 
>f  their  savings.  But  Glasgow  has  faced  con- 
ditions almost  as  terrible  as  those  given  in  "  The 
Bitter  Cry  of  Outcast  London,"  with  a  result  not 
yet  attained  by  the  latter  city,  having  destroyed 
hundreds  of  foul  tenements  to  make  room  for 
improved  dwellings. 

For  Ireland,  though  Irish  linen,  poplins,  and 
woollens  are  the  synonym  of  excellence,  the  pro- 
portion of  women  workers  in  these  industries  is 
comparatively  small.  In  a  few  counties  in  the 
south  Irish  lace  is  made,  but  the  women  are 
chiefly  agricultural  laborers.  Thanks  to  the 
efforts  of  Parnell,  in  1885,  there  was  formed  "  The 
Association  for  the  Promotion  of  Irish  Indus- 
tries," then  chiefly  destroyed  by  the  "Act  of 
Union  "  which  permitted  England  to  levy  protec- 
tive tariffs  on  all  Irish  manufactures.  Statistics 
on  these  points  are  hidden  in  English  Blue-books, 
and  we  have  no  very  reliable  data  as  to  the  num- 
ber of  women  and  children  employed.  The 
efforts  of  the  Countess  of  Aberdeen,  during  the 


1 60  Women    Wage- Earners. 

term  of  her  husband  as  Viceroy  of  Ireland,  and 
of  the  Countess  of  Dunraven  on  the  Dunraven 
estates  in  the  county  of  Limerick,  have  done 
much  to  re-establish  the  lace  industry,  —  with 
such  success  that  the  work  compares  favorably 
with  that  of  some  of  the  French  convents. 

In  Wales,  as  in  the  North  of  England,  women 
and  children  are  employed  in  the  mines,  and 
there  is  constant  evasion  of  the  laws  regulating 
hours,  with  a  wage  as  inadequate  as  the  work  is 
heavy.  Heavy  woollens  and  corduroy  employ  a 
small  proportion  in  their  manufacture,  wage  and 
hours  being  the  same  as  those  of  England. 


Conditions  for  Continental  Workers.     161 


VIII. 

GENERAL  CONDITIONS   FOR   CONTINENTAL 
WORKERS. 

FOR  France  the  census  of  1847  showed  a 
list  of  959  women  workers  in  Paris  earn- 
ing sixty  centimes  a  day;  100,000  earning 
from  sixty  centimes  to  three  francs,  and  626 
earning  over  three  francs.  That  for  1869 
showed  17,203,  earning  from  fifty  centimes  to 
one  franc  twenty-five  centimes  daily;  11,000 
of  these  workers  being  furnished  lodging,  food, 
and  washing.  Of  the  entire  number  88,340 
earned  from  one  franc  fifty  centimes  to  four 
francs  a  day ;  767  earned  from  four  francs  fifty 
centimes  to  ten  francs  daily,  most  of  the  latter 
class  being  heads  of  work  rooms  or  shops. 
The  rise  in  wages  affected  the  better  orders 
of  worker,  but  left  the  sewing-woman's  wage 
nearly  unchanged.  Levasseur J  tells  us  that 

1  Histoire  des    Classes   Ouvriers  en   France  depuis  1789 
jusqu'a  nos  Jours,  par   E.  Levasseur. 
ii 


1 6  2  Women    Wage- Earners. 

toward  the  end  of  the  reign  of  Louis  Philippe 
the  wage  of  a  woman  varied  ordinarily  from 
twelve  to  twenty-five  sous,  exceptionally  from 
twenty  to  forty ;  that  of  children  being  from  six 
to  fifteen  sous ;  of  men  from  thirty  sous  for 
ordinary  laborers,  to  forty  or  forty-five  for 
skilled  work. 

The  census  for  1851  gave  for  Paris  112,891 
workwomen,  60,000  of  whom  were  sewers. 
Convent  sewing,  that  of  the  prisons  and  reforma- 
tories, and  the  competition  of  women  who  had 
homes  and  worked  simply  for  pin-money,  kept 
the  wage  at  a  minimum ;  and  these  conditions 
still  operate  toward  that  end,  precisely  as  they 
do  for  all  countries  where  the  needle  is  a  means 
of  support,  the  evil  being  felt  most  severely  in 
our  cities.  The  facts  in  the  life  of  a  French 
seampstress  are  much  the  same  as  those  of  the 
Englishwoman.  To  earn  two  francs  a  day  she 
must  make  eight  chemises,  working  from  four- 
teen to  sixteen  hours  daily  to  accomplish  this. 
The  income  of  the  average  sewer  does  not 
exceed,  at  the  best,  five  hundred  francs,  and 
most  usually  falls  below.  Rents  are  so  high 
that  a  garret  requires  not  less  than  one  hundred 
francs  a  year.  In  his  researches  into  conditions, 


Conditions  for  Continental  Workers.    163 

rules  Simon  1  found  that  this  sum  compelled  de- 
privations of  every  order.  Expenses  were  as 
.follows:  Rent,  100  francs;  clothing,  bedding,  etc., 
115  francs;  washing,  36  francs;  heat  and  light, 
36  francs.  These  sums  amounted  to  286.50 
francs,  the  amount  remaining  for  food  being 
215.50,  or  a  little  less  than  twelve  sous  a  day,  — 
the  amount  expended  by  two  of  our  own  seam- 
stresses in  New 'York  in  1887,  the  items  being 
given  by  the  earner.2 

Existence  on  French  soil,  whether  in  Paris, 
the  manufacturing  towns,  or  the  provinces,  has 
come  to  mean  something  very  different  from 
the  facts  of  a  generation  ago.  Then,  with 
wages  hardly  above  "  subsistence  point,"  the 
thrifty  Frenchwoman  not  only  lived,  but  man- 
aged to  put  by  a  trifle  each  month.  Wages 
have  risen,  but  prices  have  at  the  same  time 
advanced.  Every  article  of  daily  need  is  at 
the  highest  point,  —  sugar,  which  the  London 
workwoman  buys  at  a  penny  a  pound,  being 
twelve  cents  a  pound  in  Paris ;  and  flour, 
milk,  eggs,  equally  high.  Fuel  is  so  dear 
that  shivering  is  the  law  for  all  save  the 

1  L'Ouvriere,  par  Jules  Simon. 

2  Prisoners  of  Poverty,  p.  118. 


1 64          Women   Wage- Earners. 

wealthy ;  and  rents  are  no  less  dear,  with  no 
"improved  dwellings"  system  to  give  the  most 
for  the  scant  sum  at  disposal.  Bread  and  coffee, 
chiefly  chiccory,  make  one  meal ;  bread  alone  is 
the  staple  of  the  others,  with  a  bit  of  meat  for 
Sunday.  Hours  are  frightfully  long,  the  disabili- 
ties of  the  French  needleworker  being  in  many 
points  the  same  as  those  of  her  English  sister. 
In  short,  even  skilled  labor  has  many  disabili- 
ties, the  saving  fact  being  that  unskilled  is  in  far 
less  proportion  than  across  the  Channel,  the 
present  system  of  education  including  many 
forms  of  industrial  training. 

Generations  of  freer  life  than  that  of  England, 
and  many  traditions  in  her  favor  give  certain 
advantages  to  the  woman  born  on  French  soil. 
It  is  taken  for  granted  that  she  will  after  mar- 
riage share  her  husband's  work  or  continue  her 
own,  and  her  keen  intelligence  is  relied  upon  to 
a  degree  unknown  to  other  nations.  Repeated 
wars,  and  the  enrolment  of  all  her  men  for 
fixed  periods  of  service,  have  developed  the 
capacity  of  women  in  business  directions,  and 
they  fill  every  known  occupation.  The  light- 
heartedness  of  her  nation  is  in  her  favor,  and 
she  has  learned  thoroughly  how  to  extract  the 


Conditions  for  Continental  Workers.    165 


xix 

«• 


most  from  every  centime.  There  is  none  of 
e  hopeless  dowdiness  and  dejection  that  char- 
acterize the  lower  order  of  Englishwoman. 
Trim,  tidy,  and  thrifty,  the  Frenchwoman  faces 
poverty  with  a  smiling  courage  that  is  part  of 
her  strength,  this  look  changing  often  for  the 
older  ones  into  a  patience  which  still  holds 
courage. 

Thus  far  there  is  no  official  report  of  the 
industries  in  which  they  are  engaged,  and 
figures  must  be  drawn  from  unofficial  sources. 
M.  Paul  Leroy-Beaulieu,  the  noted  political 
economist,  in  his  history  of  "  The  Labor  of 
Women  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,"  computes 
the  number  of  women  at  work  in  the  manu- 
factories of  textile  fabrics,  cotton,  woollen, 
linen,  and  silk,  as  nearly  one  million ;  and 
outside  of  this  is  the  enormous  number  of 
lace-makers  and  general  workers  in  all  occupa- 
tions. There  are  over  a  quarter  of  a  million 
of  these  lace-workers,  whose  wages  run  from 
eighty  and  ninety  centimes  to  two  francs  a 
day;  and  the  rate  of  payment  for  Swiss  lace- 
workers  is  the  same. 

During  the  Congres  Feministe  held  in  the 
autumn  of  1892,  Madame  Vincent,  an  ardent 


1 66          Women   Wage- Earners. 

champion  of  women  wage-earners,  presented 
statistics,  chiefly  from  private  sources,  showing 
that  out  of  19,352,000  artisans  in  France,  there 
are  4,415,000  women  who  receive  in  wages  or 
dividends  nearly  $500,000,000  a  year.  Their 
wage  is  much  less  in  proportion  to  the  work 
they  do  than  that  of  men,  yet  they  draw  thirty- 
five  per  cent  of  the  entire  sum  spent  in  wages. 
In  Paris  alone,  over  8,000  women  are  doing 
business  on  an  independent  footing;  and  of 
3,858  suits  judged  in  1892  by  the  Working- 
man's  Council,  1,674  concerned  women.  In 
spite  of  these  numbers  and  the  abuses  known 
to  exist,  the  Chamber  of  Deputies  has  refused 
practically  to  extend  to  women  workers  the 
law  for  the  regulation  of  the  conditions  of 
work  in  workshops.  The  refusal  is  disguised 
under  the  form  of  adjournment  of  the  matter, 
the  reason  assigned  being  that  the  grievances 
of  women  are  by  no  means  ripe  enough  for 
discussion.  Women  themselves  are  not  at  all 
of  the  same  mind  ;  and  the  result  has  already 
been  a  move  toward  definite  organization  of 
trades,  and  united  action  for  all  women  engaged 
in  them,  —  a  step  hitherto  regarded  as  impossible. 
The  first  effect  of  this  has  been  a  protest  from 


Conditions  for  Continental  Workers.    167 

Paris  shopgirls  against  the  action  of  the 
Chamber  of  Deputies,  and  the  formation  of 
committees  whose  business  will  be  to  enlist 
the  interest  and  co-operation  of  women  through- 
out the  entire  country,  —  a  slow  process,  but  one 
that  will  mean  both  education  and  final  release 
from  some  at  least  of  the  worst  disabilities  now 
weighting  all  women  workers. 

"  La  femme  devenue  ouvriere,  n'est  plus  une 
femme,"  wrote  Jules  Simon  in  a  burst  of  despair 
at  the  conditions  of  the  Paris  workwoman  ;  and 
he  repeated  the  word  as  his  investigations  ex- 
tended to  manufacturing  France,  and  he  found 
everywhere  the  home  in  many  cases  abolished, 
the  crhhe  taking  its  place  till  the  child,  vitally 
dependent  upon  a  care  that  included  love,  gave 
up  the  struggle  for  existence,  rendering  its  tiny 
quota  to  the  long  list  of  infant  mortality. 
M.  Leroy-Beaulieu  had  described  years  before 
the  practical  extinction  of  the  family  and  the 
government  interference1  brought  about  by 
the  discoveries  made  by  the  government  in- 
specting committee,  upon  whom  consternation 
seized  as  they  found  decadence  of  morals, 

1  Le  Travail  des  Femmes  au  XIX.  Siecle,  par  Paul  Leroy- 
Beaulieu. 


1 68          Women   Wage-Earners. 

enfeebled  physique,  and  that  the  ordinary  girl- 
worker  at  sixteen  or  seventeen  could  not  sew 
a  seam,  or  make  a  broth,  or  care  for  a  child's 
needs  or  the  simplest  demands  of  a  home. 
Appalled  at  these  conditions,  France  set  about 
the  organization  of  industrial  schools,  and  these 
have  altered  the  whole  face  of  affairs. 

Generations  of  abuses  had  made,  up  to  the 
time  of  the  investigation,  the  history  of  the 
working-class  in  France.  One  of  their  best- 
known  scientific  observers,  the  statistician 
Villerme,  examined  in  person,  and  as  one  of 
the  government  inspecting  committee  reported 
on  the  condition  of  dwellings  in  Lille,  Amiens, 
and  other  manufacturing  towns  of  France. 
The  weavers  and  spinners  of  Lille  lived  in 
caves,  of  which  thirty-six  hundred  were  found 
occupied  by  families,— father,  mother,  and 
children  as  soon  as  old  enough,  employed  in  the 
mills,  and  returning  at  night  to  these  dens,  where 
filth  and  darkness  periodically  did  their  work 
of  decimation,  and  where  infant  mortality  had 
reached  the  maximum.  Horrified  at  the  dis- 
coveries made,  three  thousand  of  these  dwellings 
were  at  once  destroyed.  But  for  unknown  and 
quite  inscrutable  reasons  six  hundred  were 


Conditions  for  Continental  Workers.    169 

allowed  to  remain  and  receive  double  the 
original  number  of  tenants.1  Years  passed 
before  the  last  cave  was  filled  up,  the  children 
born  in  them  providing  an  enormous  percentage 
for  prison  and  galleys.  At  Douai,  Rouen, 
Roubaix,  and  many  other  points,  such  hideous 
filth  marked  the  homes  of  the  working-class 
that  Villerme  reported  :  "  The  walls  are  covered 
with  a  thousand  layers  of  ordure."  The  women, 
exhausted  and  depleted  by  a  day's  labor  of 
from  twelve  to  fourteen  hours,  had  no  time  to 
think  of  cleanliness.  In  fact,  its  meaning  had 
never  been  taught ;  and  though  industrial  schools 
increase,  hours  are  now  shortened,  and  inspec- 
tion is  active,  it  remains  true  that  almost  the 
same  conditions  perpetuate  themselves  at  many 
points,  —  the  descriptions  given  by  the  great 
realist,  Zola,  of  women  and  children  in  the  mines, 
and  the  hideousness  of  their  home  life,  being 
very  literal  and  unexaggerated  fact. 

As  to  conditions  of  the  work  itself,  many 
trades  and  occupations  require  for  their  proper 
carrying  on  methods  and  surroundings  abso- 
lutely destructive  to  health.  In  all  preparation 
of  hemp  and  oakum  dust  is  excessive ;  far 

1  L'Ouvriere,  p.  158. 


170          Women   Wage- Earners. 

beyond  that  of  the  cotton-mill,  which  itself 
breeds  consumption.  In  the  spinning  of  flax 
great  heat  and  water  are  both  necessities. 
"Nothing  is  more  wretched,"  writes  Jules 
Simon,  "than  a  linen-spinner's  surroundings. 
Water  covers  the  brick  floor.  The  odor  of  the 
linen  and  a  temperature  often  exceeding  twenty- 
five  Reaumur  fill  the  workroom  with  an  intoler- 
able stench.  The  majority  of  the  workwomen, 
obliged  to  put  off  most  of  their  garments,  are 
huddled  together  in  this  pestilential  atmosphere, 
imprisoned  in  the  machines,  pressed  one  against 
the  other,  their  bodies  streaming  with  sweat, 
their  feet  bare  to  the  ankle  ;  and  when  a  day, 
nominally  of  twelve  hours  but  really  of  thirteen 
and  a  half,  is  over,  they  quit  the  workroom  for 
home,  the  rags  they  wear  barely  protecting 
them  from  cold  and  damp." 

Details  of  the  same  order  abound  in  the  work 
of  the  political  economist  M.  Leroy-Beaulieu,1 
who  seeks  at  all  points  to  give  the  most  favor- 
able impression  possible.  In  each  and  every 
case  the  great  authorities  appear  to  be  of  one 
mind  as  to  the  disastrous  effects  upon  the 
children  born  to  these  mothers.  That  the 

1  Le  Travail  des  Femmes  aux  XIX.  Si&cle. 


I 


Conditions  for  Continental  Workers.    171 

creche  is  now  practically  a  part  of  every  factory 
makes  little  or  no  difference. 

"  The  creche''  writes  Jules  Simon,  "  abolishes 
maternity  in  all  save  its  pains.  The  working 
mother  is  defrauded  of  her  own  means  of  growth, 
bound  up  in  the  training  of  the  child;  and  the 
child  loses  its  right  to  be  loved  and  guarded 
by  love."  In  short,  for  all  continental  countries, 
as  well  as  for  England  and  our  women,  the 
question  of  child  labor  and  the  destiny  of 
the  child  are  inextricably  bound  up  in  that  of  the 
working  mother,  and  are  vital  factors  in  working 
out  the  problem  of  woman  as  a  wage-earner. 
What  proportion  of  wage-earning  women  recruit 
the  ranks  of  prostitution,  is  a  question  often 
asked.  In  Paris,  which  is  in  one  sense  the  focus 
of  French  labor,  its  many  opportunities  drawing 
to  it  a  large  contingent  from  the  provinces,  it  is 
popularly  supposed  that  the  ranks  of  the  sewing- 
women  give  large  proportion  to  houses  of 
prostitution.  This  opinion  is  the  prevailing 
one  for  all  large  cities,  whether  in  Europe  or 
America,  yet  is  disproved  on  all  sides.  For 
Paris  Parent-Duchalet  states  that  in  the  statistics 
given  by  the  prefecture  of  police,  in  a  table 
including  forty-one  categories,  women  with  no 


172  Women   Wage- Earners. 

occupation  had  first  rank  as  prostitutes,  do- 
mestic service  giving  the  second,  and  sewing- 
women  the  smallest  proportion.  This  is  the 
more  surprising  when  one  considers  that  their 
wage  is  often  below  the  point  of  subsistence, 
and  that  temptation  of  every  order  waits  upon 
them.  At  the  best  the  wage  falls  far  below  that  of 
men,  even  when  both  engage  in  the  same  work. 
The  present  movement  toward  organization  is 
the  first  step  toward  a  general  bettering  of  all 
trades  and  their  wage ;  and  for  fullest  details  of 
this,  and  work  in  connection  with  the  admirable 
Bourse  du  Travail,  one  of  its  most  important 
features  of  working  life  to-day  in  Paris,  the  reader 
must  turn  to  the  reports  themselves,  beginning 
with  the  first  one,  issued  in  1 887-88.*  The 
same  facts  may  be  said  to  form  the  story  of 
labor  in  Belgium,  in  Switzerland,  in  Italy,  and 
at  all  points  where  women  or  children  are  at 
work,  whether  in  factory  or  mine  or  workshop. 
For  Belgium  the  situation  is  summed  up  in  a 
very  important  and  minute  report  of  the  govern- 
ment inquiry  commission  into  the  labor  of 
women  and  children, —  the  first  made  in  1867  and 

1  Annuaire  de  la  Bourse  du  Travail.     Volumes  from  1887  to 
1892  inclusive. 


Conditions  for  Continental  Workers.    173 

followed  by  one  in  1874,  the  latest  having  been 
made  in  1891. 1 

A  comprehensive  law,  promulgated  Nov.  2, 
1892,  and  regulating  the  labor  of  women  and 
children  in  factories  and  mines,  was  amended 
in  May,  1893,  by  the  addition  of  very  specific 
regulations  as  to  all  employments  affecting 
health  and  morals.  The  Presidential  decree 
consists  of  two  parts,  —  the  first  dealing  with 
the  employment  of  women  and  children  in  con- 
nection with  machinery  when  in  motion,  or  in 
which  the  dangerous  parts  are  not  fully  pro- 
tected, in  glass-blowing  and  in  carrying  weights. 
The  second  part  of  the  decree  consists  of  three 
tables,  of  which  A  enumerates  certain  indus- 
tries, chiefly  the  manufacture  of  acids,  dyes, 
chemicals,  etc.,  also  manures  and  glass,  crystal, 
and  metal  polishing,  in  which  female  and  child 
labor  are  prohibited  ;  B  those  in  which  children 
under  eighteen  must  not  work,  chiefly  the  manu- 

1  Rapport  sur  1'Enquete  faite  au  nom  de  1'Academie  Royale 
de  Medecine  de  Belgique,  par  la  commission  chargee  d'etudier 
la  question  de  1'emploi  des  femmes  dans  les  travaux  souter- 
rain  des  mines,  Bruxelles,  1868. 

Documents  nouveaux  relatifs  au  travail  des  femmes  et  des 
enfants,  dans  les  manufactures,  les  mines,  etc,  etc.  Bruxelles, 
1874. 


174  Women   Wage-Earners. 

facture  of  explosives ;  and  C,  a  large  variety 
of  other  industries  in  which  female  and  child 
labor  is  only  allowed  conditionally.  The  great 
majority  of  these  are  industries  involving  special 
risk  through  the  disengagement  of  dust-particles 
or  vapors ;  while  a  few  are  ranked  as  dangerous, 
owing  to  risk  of  fire  and  the  contraction  of 
special  diseases,  etc. 

Belgium,  French  in  feeling  and  in  methods, 
has  known  some  of  the  worst  abuses  discoverable 
on  continental  soil,  thousands  of  women  and 
children  in  her  mines  having  toiled  from  twelve 
to  sixteen  hours  a  day,  with  often  no  Sunday 
rest,  for  a  wage  at  bare  subsistence  point.  In 
"  Germinal,"  Zola,  who  spent  months  observing 
every  phase  of  their  life,  has  given  a  picture, 
unsurpassed  in  any  literature,  of  the  misery 
and  degradation  of  the  worker.  An  investiga- 
tion in  1874,  and  indignation  at  some  of  the 
conditions  then  discovered,  brought  about 
modifications  of  the  law.  That  of  the  general 
congress  of  1891  accomplished  much  more  ;  but 
work  must  still  be  done  before  any  very  marked 
advance  becomes  discernible. 

Passing  to  Germany,  a  good  two-thirds  of 
the  women  are  at  work  in  field  or  shop  or 


Conditions  for  Continental  Workers.    175 

home,  the  proportion  of  women  in  agriculture 
being  larger  than  in  any  other  country  of 
Europe.  Her  schools  furnish  better  training 
than  those  of  any  other  nation.  In  all  these 
points  Prussia  leads,  though  till  recently  legis- 
lation has  been  in  behalf  of  child-workers,  and 
women  have  been  practically  ignored.  But 
factory  regulations  are  minute  and  extended ; 
and  the  questions  involved  in  the  labor  of 
women,  and  its  bearing  on  health,  longevity, 
etc.,  are  now  coming  under  consideration.  In 
Silesia,  as  early  as  1868,  women  were  excluded 
from  the  salt-mines ;  and  the  Labor  Congress  of 
1889  brought  about  many  changes  of  the  laws 
on  this  point  for  Belgium  and  Germany.  In 
Italy,  in  which  country  industrial  education  is 
now  receiving  much  attention,  the  labor  of  wo- 
men, continuous,  severe,  and  underpaid,  as  it  is 
known  to  be,  finds  small  mention,  save  among 
special  students  of  social  questions.  Russia 
has  practically  no  data  from  which  judgment 
can  be  formed.  In  short,  it  is  only  in  English- 
speaking  countries  that  really  efficient  action 
as  to  the  labor  of  women  has  taken  place; 
while  even  for  them  the  work  has  but  begun, 
and  new  and  more  radical  forms  will  be  neces- 


1 76  Women   Wage-Earners. 

sary  for  any  real  progress  toward  final  better- 
ment. Toward  such  end  the  labor  bureaus  of 
our  own  country  are  working  diligently;  and 
it  is  with  them  that  we  have  next  to  do,  the 
investigations  already  made  and  incorporated 
in  their  reports  being  full  of  suggestion  for 
future  workers. 

The  census  of  1882  gave  for  Germany,  in  a 
population  of  45,222,113  persons,  23,071,364 
women,  of  whom  1,109,530  were  widows,  and 
5,467,730  unmarried,  a  large  proportion  of  both 
these  classes  being  self-supporting.  An  im- 
mense number  of  these  were  agricultural  labor- 
ers. In  Prussia  in  1867  the  census  gave  the 
number  of  women  agricultural  laborers  as 
1,054,213.  Woman's  wage  for  a  day's  labor, 
always  twelve  and  often  fourteen  hours,  is  from 
twenty  to  twenty-five  cents,  about  a  third  of  that 
received  by  men  doing  the  same  work.  Brassey, 
the  great  railroad  contractor,  found  throughout 
Germany  that  her  wage  was  always  a  third  and 
often  a  quarter  less  than  that  of  men. 

For  united  Germany  the  description  given  by 
Villerme  in  1836  is  still  true  for  many  points. 
"  The  misery  in  which  the  cotton  spinners  and 
weavers  of  the  upper  Rhine  live,"  he  writes, 


x-  r 


Conditions  for  Continental  Workers.    177 

"  is  so  profound  that  it  produces  the  saddest 
results.  In  the  families  of  manufacturers, 
drapers,  merchants,  etc.,  half  the  children  born 
attain  their  nineteenth  year,  this  same  half 
ceasing  to  exist  before  the  age  of  two  years  in 
the  families  of  weavers  and  workers  at  cotton- 
spinning." 

As  to  numbers  employed  in  trades  and  indus- 
tries, it  is  difficult  to  secure  them  with  exact- 
ness. The  census  of  1871  reported  three  tenths 
of  the  population  as  agricultural,  the  males 
employed  in  agriculture  being  2,338,174,  and 
the  females  4,426,573.  Household  service  had 
840,000  women  on  its  rolls.  In  1875  the 
cotton-mills  employed  in  weaving  and  spinning 
95,934  women  ;  the  woollen  manufacture,  nearly 
193,000;  linen,  hemp,  and  jute,  190,000.  The 
labor  of  women  and  children  was  hardly  recog- 
nized, and  statistics  had  to  be  disentangled  as 
best  they  might  be  from  general  tables  of  occu- 
pations. Through  the  persistent  efforts  of  the 
Centre  in  the  German  Reichstag,  a  gradual 
betterment  of  the  working-classes  has  been 
brought  about,  and  thus  indirectly  that  of 
women  and  children,  —  the  first  combined  and 
determined  effort  being  made  in  1889,  when 

12 


1 78  Women    Wage- Earners. 

three  bills  were  brought  up  for  discussion. 
The  first  made  the  working-day  not  to  exceed 
eleven  hours;  the  second  demanded  the  sus- 
pension of  industrial  labor  on  Sunday,  save  in 
exceptional  cases,  when  five  hours'  labor  was  to 
be  allowed;  the  third  concerned  the  labor  of 
women  and  children,  and  with  some  modifica- 
tions is  practically  the  law  to-day.  Night  and 
Sunday  labor  in  mines,  smelting-works,  rolling- 
mills,  and  dockyards  is  entirely  forbidden,  nor 
can  married  women  work  more  than  ten  hours 
a  day.  The  Federal  Council  has  the  right  also 
to  forbid  the  employment  of  women  and  chil- 
dren in  all  factories  and  establishments  where 
health  and  morals  are  exposed  to  exceptional 
dangers. 

At  the  period  at  which  the  investigations 
which  brought  about  the  agitation  of  the  ques- 
tion were  made,  the  number  of  child  laborers 
had  increased  in  two  years  from  155,000  to 
192,000,  children  hardly  more  than  babies 
being  in  the  factories.  At  present  the  law  for- 
bids the  employment  of  any  child  under  twelve, 
and  not  less  than  three  hours'  schooling  daily 
is  compulsory.  Abuses  exist  at  all  points, 
women  workers  in  mines  faring,  even  with  short- 


Conditions  for  Continental  Workers.     179 


ened  day,  in  very  evil  case,  —  the  wage  at  or 
below  subsistence  point  and  the  general  con- 
ditions of  the  most  hopeless  order.  Constant 
agitation  goes  on  in  the  Reichstag,  and  organi- 
zation among  the  women  themselves  will  in  time 
bring  about  needed  reforms;  but  as  a  whole 
the  German  woman  is  in  many  points  less  con- 
sidered than  the  women  of  any  other  civilized 
nation. 

Though  Italy  is  pre-eminently  an  agricul- 
tural country,  and  men,  women,  and  children  are 
alike  employed  in  agricultural  pursuits,  there 
has  been  no  trustworthy  record  of  numbers 
engaged.  In  manufacturing  there  are  more 
statistics,  but  interest  in  the  woman's  share  in 
labor  is  of  recent  date.  In  the  silk  manu- 
facture, in  which  Italy  ranks  second  only  to 
China,  and  far  beyond  all  .other  competitors, 
81,165  women  and  25,373  children  were  em- 
ployed in  1877,  chiefly  in  unwinding  cocoons, 
the  number  at  present-  having  increased  nearly 
ten  per  cent.  In  the  cotton  industry  there 
were  employed,  at  the  time  of  the  same  census, 
2,696  women  and  2,520  children;  and  a  pro- 
portionate increase  in  numbers  has  taken  place. 
In  the  flax  and  hemp  industries  nearly  seventy 


i8o  Women   Wage- Earners. 

thousand  workers  used  hand-looms  at  home, 
the  larger  proportion  of  these  being  women. 
In  the  factories  it  was  found  that  2,565  women 
and  1,227  children  were  at  work  as  spinners, 
and  3,394  women  and  1,020  children  as  weavers. 
Women  are  steadily  employed  in  the  manu- 
facture of  straw  hats  and  bonnets,  in  jute  in 
many  forms,  in  cigar  and  cigarette  making,  and 
in  many  other  industries,  cheap  clothing  lead- 
ing. Of  the  thirty  millions  and  more  of  popu- 
lation, not  quite  half  are  women  ;  and  of  these 
nearly  half  are  wage-earners,  the  majority  in 
unrecorded  forms  of  labor,  —  chiefly  household 
service  or  the  care  of  their  own  homes,  with 
some  petty  industry  adding  its  mite  to  the 
yearly  income.  But  industrial  training  has  but 
begun  for  Italy.  The  wage  is  pitiably  low,  the 
conditions  of  living  hard  and  full  of  privation ; 
nor  can  these  facts  alter  till  better  education 
and  organization  have  been  brought  about. 
The  latest  Italian  census  is  not  yet  published ; 
but  proofs  of  tables  of  the  comparative  wage 
for  twenty  years  in  some  of  the  principal  indus- 
tries have  been  sent  me  through  the  courtesy 
of  Signor  Luigi  Bodio,  the  minister  of  agricul- 
ture, commerce,  and  general  statistics.  From 


Conditions  for  Continental  Workers.     181 

these  tables  it  is  found  that  the  daily  wage  of 
women  cotton-spinners  has  risen  from  sixty 
centimes,  in  1871,  to  one  franc  twenty-six  cen- 
times in  1891,  this  being  the  equivalent  of  one 
lire  twenty-six  centissimi.  The  wage  for  weav- 
ing has  risen  from  eighty  centimes,  in  1871, 
to  one  franc  twenty-six  centimes  in  1891. 
Spoolers  in  1871  received  eighty-eight  centimes 
as  against  one  franc  thirty  centimes  in  1891. 
In  hemp-spinning  the  wage  has  fallen  from 
ninety  to  eighty  centimes,  but  has  risen  from 
ninety-eight  centimes  to  one  franc  thirty  cen- 
times for  twisting ;  the  wage  in  the  cases  cited 
being  a  little  more  than  a  third  that  of  men. 
In  paper-making  experienced  workers  now 
receive  one  franc  fifty-two  centimes  as  against 
sixty-six  centimes  in  1871  ;  and  in  making  of 
stearine  candles  one  franc  as  against  seventy- 
eight  centimes  in  1871.  Running  through  the 
tables  of  every  industry,  the  average  is  about 
the  same,  —  the  wage  for  women,  even  when 
doing  the  same  work,  hardly  more  than  a  third 
that  for  men,  and  the  amount  for  either  at  bare 
subsistence  point. 

In  Russia  the  woman's  wage  is  but  a  fifth  that 
of  men,  with  working  conditions,  save  at  a  few 


1 82  Women   Wage- Earners. 

points  where  the  work  of  Professor  Janzhul  and 
his  confreres  has  told,  at  the  very  worst, —  the 
day  being  from  twelve  to  sixteen  hours  long 
even  in  the  best-managed  factories,  while  in  the 
village  industries,  which,  owing  to  the  peculiar 
conditions  of  Russian  life,  make  up  the  larger 
proportion  of  her  industries,  it  is  for  many 
workers  almost  unending,  the  merest  respite 
being  given  for  sleep.  As  yet  but  few  authentic 
figures  as  to  the  numbers  employed  are  given, 
though  on  the  first  investigation  into  domestic 
industries  made  a  few  years  since  it  was  found 
that  over  890,000  were  engaged  in  them,  and 
also  at  the  same  time  in  agriculture.  Manu- 
facturing in  Russia  concentrates  about  Moscow 
and  St.  Petersburg,  which  represent  more  than 
two  fifths  of  the  whole  production  of  the  empire. 
The  requirements  of  nine  tenths  of  the  Russian 
people  are  met  by  domestic  manufacture  in  the 
villages,  and  home-weaving  for  the  market 
employs  over  two  hundred  thousand  workers, 
other  textiles,  leather,  etc.,  being  dealt  with  in 
the  same  way. 

In  the  other  northern  countries  of  Europe,  — 
Norway,  Sweden,  and  Denmark,  —  manufactures 
are  at  a  minimum,  fisheries  and  agriculture  being 


Conditions  for  Continental  Workers.     183 

the  chief  industries.  Women  are  employed  in 
>oth  ;  and  in  the  few  factories  there  is  a  small 
proportion  of  women  and  children,  working  at 
a  wage  much  less  than  that  given  to  men. 
Sweden  has  a  most  admirable  system  of  indus- 
trial education ;  and  Norway  and  Denmark, 
though  far  less  in  population,  have  adopted 
the  same  methods.  But  the  limitations  of  all 
wage-earning  women  are  felt  here  in  the  same 
manner  as  elsewhere,  the  summary  for  all  coun- 
tries being  much  the  same.  The  Northern 
workwoman  has  the  advantage  of  training  and 
of  as  keen  a  sense  of  economy  as  the  French- 
woman ;  but  her  wage  is  most  usually  at  or 
below  subsistence  point,  and  her  difficulties  are 
those  of  the  worker  in  general,  —  long  hours, 
insufficient  pay,  and  fierce  competition. 

As  to  the  present  laws  concerning  the  length 
of  the  working-day,  a  general  abstract  is  found 
in  a  return  issued  in  reply  to  an  address  from 
the  House  of  Commons,  an  abstract  of  which 
was  given  in  "  St.  James'  Gazette"  :  — 

"  In  France  the  hours  of  adult  labor  are  regulated 
by  a  series  of  decrees,  of  which  the  earliest,  promul- 
gated September,  1848,  enacts  that  the  workingman's 
day  in  manufactories  and  mills  shall  not  exceed  twelve 


1 84  Women   Wage- Earners. 

hours  of  '  effective  '  or  actual  labor.  A  decree  issued 
in  May,  1851,  made  exceptions,  so  that  more  hours 
might  be  worked  in  certain  trades.  In  1885  a  cir- 
cular was  issued  stating  that  the  limit  of  twelve  hours 
per  diem  was  not  to  be  imposed  where  hand -power 
was  employed,  but  was  to  be  confined  to  manu- 
factories and  mills  in  which  the  motive  power  was 
machinery.  No  workshops  were  to  come  under  the 
clauses  of  the  act  that  did  not  employ  more  than 
twenty  hands  in  any  one  shed.  The  report  says  :  'It 
is  likewise  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  there  is  in  France 
no  compulsory  observance  of  Sunday,  and  no  day  of 
habitual  rest.' 

"  The  reports  of  the  French  inspectors  of  labor 
appear  to  show  that  the  Act  of  1848  is  very  loosely 
interpreted.  It  is  even  doubtful  whether  the  section 
limiting  the  actual  working- day  to  twelve  hours  was 
intended  to  include  or  exclude  hours  of  rest.  Prac- 
tically the  legal  time  is  made  to  exclude  rest.  This 
makes  the  working-day  so  much  the  longer.  Thus 
one  of  the  French  inspectors  states  that  the  hours  of 
attendance  in  factories  under  the  Act  of  1848  are 
from  five  in  the  morning  until  seven  in  the  evening, 
or  a  total  of  fourteen  hours,  out  of  which  there  are 
twelve  hours  of  'effective  labor.'  But  the  same 
authority  also  states  that  '  effective '  time  often 
extends  to  thirteen  and  fourteen  hours  in  many 
weaving-establishments.  Finally,  we  are  told  that, 
'  as  a  rule,'  it  may  be  taken  that  Frenchmen 


. 


Conditions  for  Continental  Workers.     185 

employed  in  factories  are  present  in    the    shops    at 
least  fourteen  hours  out  of  every  twenty  four. 

"  Among  the  countries  having  no  laws  affecting  the 
hours  of  adult  labor,  Germany  is  conspicuous.  Em- 
ployers, however,  cannot  force  their  servants  to  work 
on  Sundays  and  feast-days.  Employment  of  youthful 
or  female  labor  in  certain  kinds  of  factories,  which  is 
attended  with  special  danger  to  health  or  morals,  is 
forbidden,  or  made  conditional  on  certain  regulations, 
by  which  night  labor  for  female  work- people  is  espe- 
cially forbidden.  In  Germany,  as  in  other  countries 
also,  women  may  not  be  employed  in  factories  for  a 
certain  time  after  childbirth.  In  Hesse-Darmstadt 
the  medium  duration  of  labor  is  from  ten  to  twelve 
hours,  —  the  cases  in  which  the  latter  time  is 
exceeded  being,  however,  more  frequent  than  those 
in  which  the  former  is  not  exceeded.  The  normal 
work- day  throughout  Saxony  in  all  the  principal 
branches  of  industry  is  from  6  A.  M.  to  7  p.  M.,  with 
half  an  hour  for  breakfast,  an  hour  for  dinner,  and 
half  an  hour  for  supper.  In  the  manufacturing 
industry  there  are  departures  from  these  hours,  the 
period  of  work  in  spinning  and  weaving  mills  not 
infrequently  being  twelve  hours. 

"  In  Austria  the  law  provides  that  the  duration  of 
work  for  factory  hands  shall  not  exceed  eleven  hours 
out  of  the  twenty-four,  *  exclusive '  of  the  periods  of 
rest.  These  are  not  to  be  less  in  the  aggregate  than 
an  hour  and  a  half.  The  rule  can  be  modified  by 


1 86  Women    Wage- Earners. 

the  minister  of  commerce,  in  conjunction  with  the 
minister  of  the  interior,  allowing  longer  hours.  The 
hours  have  been  so  extended  to  twelve  hours  in 
certain  industries,  such  as  spinning-mills,  and  even 
to  thirteen  in  silk  manufactories.  Sunday  rest  is 
enforced.  In  Hungary  there  is  no  limit  laid  down 
by  law,  but  the  hours  are  not  generally  longer  than 
in  Austria. 

"Concerning  the  actual  hours  of  adult  labor  in 
Belgium,  some  difficulty  is  said  to  be  experienced  in 
getting  at  the  facts.  The  evidence  given  before  a 
Belgian  royal  commission  showed  that  railway  guards 
are  sometimes  on  duty  for  fifteen  and  even  nineteen 
and  a  half  hours  at  a  stretch ;  and  the  Brussels  tram- 
way-drivers are  at  work  from  fifteen  to  seventeen 
hours  daily,  with  a  rest  of  only  an  hour  and  a  half  at 
noon.  Brick- makers  work  during  the  summer  months 
sixteen  hours  a  day.  In  the  sugar  refineries  the 
average  hours  are  from  twelve  to  thirteen  for  men 
and  from  nine  to  ten  for  women.  The  cabinet- 
makers, both  at  Ghent  and  Brussels,  assert  that 
they  have  often  to  work  seventeen  hours  a  day. 

"  In  Switzerland  the  law  provides  that  a  normal 
working-day  shall  not  exceed  eleven  hours,  reduced 
on  Saturdays  and  public  holidays  to  ten.  Power  is 
reserved  for  prolonging  the  working-day  in  certain 
circumstances.  Except  in  cases  of  absolute  necessity 
Sunday  labor  is  prohibited,  and  in  establishments 
where  uninterrupted  labor  is  required,  each  working 


Conditions  for  Continental  Workers.     187 

hand  must  have  one  free  Sunday  out  of  two.  Women 
cannot  under  any  circumstances  be  employed  in  night 
or  Sunday  labor.  Italy  has  not  legislated  for  adults, 
but  has  made  regulations  for  child  labor.  Sweden  is 
in  the  same  position.  Spain  and  Portugal  have  done 
nothing.  The  general  rule'  in  the  latter  country, 
applying  to  old  arid  young,  is  to  work  from  sunrise 
sunset,  an  hour  and  a  half  being  allowed  for  meals. 
In  the  Netherlands  a  law  was  recently  promulgated  to 
prevent  excessive  and  dangerous  work  by  grown-up 
women  and  young  persons.  In  Turkey  the  working- 
day  lasts  from  sunrise  to  sunset,  with  certain  intervals 
for  repose  and  refreshment.  In  Russia,^  where  there 
are  no  laws  affecting  the  hours  of  adult  labor,  the 
normal  working-day  in  industrial  establishments 
averages  twelve  hours,  though  it  is  often  extended 
to  fourteen  and  even  sixteen." 


1 88  Women    Wage- Earners. 


CHAPTER   IX. 

GENERAL      CONDITIONS      AMONG      WAGE-EARNING 
WOMEN    IN    THE    UNITED    STATES. 

THE  summary  already  made  of  the  work  of 
bureaus  of  labor  and  their  bearing  upon 
women  wage-earners  includes  some  points  be- 
longing under  this  head  which  it  still  seemed 
advisable  to  leave  where  they  stand.  The  work 
of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  gave  the  keynote, 
followed  by  all  successors,  and  thus  required 
full  outlining;  and  it  is  from  that,  as  well  as 
successors,  that  general  conditions  are  to  be 
determined.  A  brief  summary  of  such  facts  as 
each  State  has  investigated  and  reported  upon 
will  be  given,  with  the  final  showing  of  the 
latest  and  most  general  report,  —  that  from  the 
United  States  Bureau  of  Labor  for  1889. 

Beginning  with  New  England  and  taking 
State  by  State  in  the  usual  geographical  order, 
that  of  Maine  for  1888  leads.  Work  here  was 
done  by  a  special  commissioner  appointed  for 


Conditions  in  the   United  States.      189 

the  purpose,  and  the  chief  towns  and  cities  in 
the  State  were  visited.  No  occupation  was 
excluded.  The  foreign  element  of  the  State  is 
comparatively  small.  There  is  no  city  in  which 
overcrowding  and  its  results  in  the  tenement- 
house  system  are  to  be  found.  Factories  are 
imerous,  and  the  bulk  of  Maine  working- 
romen  are  found  in  them ;  the  canning  indus- 
try employs  hundreds,  and  all  trades  have  their 
proportion  of  workers.  For  all  of  them  con- 
ditions are  better  in  many  ways  than  at  almost 
any  other  point  in  New'  England,  many  of  them 
living  at  home  and  paying  but  a  small  propor- 
tion of  their  wages  toward  the  family  support. 

A  large  proportion  of  the  factories  have 
boarding-houses  attached,  which  are  run  by  a 
contractor.  A  full  inspection  of  these  was 
made,  and  the  report  pronounces  them  to  be  bet- 
ter kept  than  the  ordinary  boarding-house,  with 
liberal  dietary  and  comfortable  rooms.  Many 
of  the  women  owned  their  furniture,  and  had 
made  "homes"  out  of  the  narrow  quarters. 
These  were  the  better-paid  class  of  workers. 
Several  of  the  factories  have  "  Relief  Associa- 
tions," in  which  the  employees  pay  a  small 
sum  weekly,  which  secures  them  a  fixed  sum 


1 90  Women    Wage- Earners. 

during  illness  or  disability.  The  conditions, 
as  a  whole,  in  factory  are  more  nearly  those  of 
Massachusetts  during  the  early  days  of  the 
Lowell  mills  than  can  be  found  elsewhere. 

Taking  the  State  as  a  whole,  though  the 
average  wage  is  nearly  a  dollar  less  a  week  than 
that  of  Massachusetts,  its  buying  power  is  some- 
what more,  from  the  fact  that  rents  are  lower 
and  the  conditions  of  living  simpler,  though 
this  is  true  only  of  remote  towns. 

Massachusetts  follows ;  and  here,  as  in  Maine, 
there  is  general  complaint  that  many  of  the 
girls  live  at  home,  pay  little  or  no  board,  and 
thus  can  take  a  lower  wage  than  the  self-sup- 
porting worker.  In  the  large  stores  employees 
are  hired  at  the  lowest  possible  figure;  and 
many  girls  who  are  working  for  from  four  to 
five  dollars  per  week  state  that  it  is  impossible 
to  pay  for  room  and  board  with  even  tolerably 
decent  clothing.  Hundreds  who  want  pin-money 
do  work  at  a  price  impossible  to  the  self-sup- 
porting worker,  many  married  women  coming 
under  this  head;  and  bitter  complaint  is  made 
on  this  point.  At  the  best  the  wage  is  at  a 
minimum,  and  only  the  most  rigid  economy 
renders  it  possible  for  the  earner  to  live  dn  it. 


Conditions  in  the   United  States.      191 

'hat  there  is  not  greater  suffering  reflects  all 
h»nor   on  the  army  of  hard-working  women, 
>ronounced    by    the    commissioner    to    be    as 
industrious,  moral,  'and  virtuous  a  class  as  the 
community  owns. 

"  Homes "  of  every  order  have  been  estab- 
lished in  Boston  and  in  other  large  towns  in 
the  State ;  and  as  they  give  board  at  the  lowest 
rate,  they  are  filled  with  girls.  They  are  rigid 

to  rules  and  regulations,  and  not  in  favor,  as 
a  rule,  with  the  majority.  A  very  slight  relax- 
ing of  lines  and  more  effort  to  make  them 
:heerful  would  result  in  bringing  many  who 
now  remain  outside ;  but  in  any  case  they  can 
reach  but  a  small  proportion. 

In  unskilled  labor  there  is  little  difference 
imong  the  workers.  All  alike  are  half  starved, 
lalf  clothed,  overworked  to  a  frightful  degree ; 
the  report  specifying  numbers  whose  day's  work 

ins  from  fourteen  to  sixteen  hours,  and  with 
teither  time  to  learn  some  better  method 
earning  a  living,  nor  hope  enough  to  spur  them 
>n  in  any  new  path.  This  class  is. found  chiefly 

long  sewing-women  on  cheap  clothing,  bags, 
itc.  ;  and  there  is  no  present  means  of  reaching 
:hem  or  altering  the  conditions  which  surround 
them. 


192  Women   Wage- Earners. 

Connecticut  factories  are  subject  to  the  same 
general  laws  as  those  governing  like  work  in 
Maine  and  Massachusetts.  Over  thirty  thou- 
sand women  and  girls  are  -engaged  in  factory 
work,  and  ten  thousand  children,  —  chiefly  girls, 
women  being  twenty-five  per  cent  of  all  employed 
in  factories.  Legislation  has  lessened  or  abol- 
ished altogether  some  of  the  worst  features  of 
this  life,  and  there  are  special  mills  which  have 
won  the  highest  reputation  for  just  dealing  and 
care  of  every  interest  of  their  employees.  But 
the  same  reasons,  that  affect  general  conditions 
for  all  workers  exist  here  also,  and  produce  the 
same  results,  not  only  in  factory  labor,  but  in  all 
other  industries  open  to  women.  The  fact  that 
there  are  no  large  cities,  and  thus  little  over- 
crowding in  tenements,  and  that  there  is  home 
life  for  a  large  proportion  of  the  workers,  tells 
in  their  favor.  Factory  boarding-houses  fairly 
well  kept  abound;  but  the  average  wage,  $6.50, 
is  a  trifle  lower  than  that  of  Massachusetts,  and 
implies  more  difficulty  in  making  ends  meet. 
Many  of  the  worst  abuses  in  child  labor  arose  in 
Connecticut,  and  the  reports  for  both  1885  and 
1886  state  that  for  both  women  and,  children 
much  remains  to  be  done.  Clothing  here,  as 


: 


Conditions  in  the   United  States.      193 

Isewhere,  is  synonymous  with  overwork  and 
underpay,  the  wage  being  below  subsistence 
point;  and  want  of  training  is  often  found  to  be 
a  portion  of  the  reason  for  these  conditions. 

In  Rhode  Island,  as  in  all  the  New  England 
States,  the  majority  of  the  factories  are  in  excel- 

ent  condition,  the  older  ones  alone  being  open 
to  the  objections  justly  made  both  by  employees 
and  the  reports  of  the  Labor  Bureau.  The  wage 

11s  below  that  of  Connecticut,  while  the  general 
conditions  of  living  are  practically  the  same,  the 
statements  made  as  to  the  first    applying  with 
equal  force  to  the  last.     Manufactures  are  the 
chief  employment,  the  largest  number  of  women 
workers   being  found  in  these.     Of  all  of  them 
the  commissioner  reports :   "  They  work  harder) 
and  more  hours  than  men,  and  receive  much  less  > 
pay  "  ]     The  fact  of  no  large  cities,  and  thus  no) 
slums,  is  in  the  worker's  favor  ;  but  limitations 
are  in  all  other  points  sharp  and  continuous. 

New  York  follows,  and  for  the  State  at  large 
the  same  remarks  apply  at  every  point.  It  is 
New  York  City  in  which  focuses  every  evil  that 
hedges  about  women  workers,  and  in  a  degree 

1  Third  Annual  Report  of  the  Commissioner  of  Industrial 
Statistics  of  Rhode  Island,  1889,  p.  22. 


1 94  Women    Wage- Earners. 

not  to  be  found  at  any  other  portion  of  the 
country.  These  will  be  dealt  with  in  the  proper 
place.  The  average  wage,  so  far  as  the  State  is 
concerned,  gives  the  same  result  as  those  already 
mentioned.  Manufacturing  gives  large  employ- 
ment; and  this  is  under  as  favorable  conditions 
as  in  New  England,  though  the  average  wage  is 
nearly  a  dollar  less  than  that  of  Massachusetts, 
while  expenses  are  in  some  ways  higher.  The 
incessant  tide  of  foreign  labor  tends  steadily  to 
lower  the  wage-rate,  and  the  struggle  for  mere 
subsistence  is  the  fact  for  most. 

In  New  York  City,  while  there  is  a  large  pro- 
portion of  successful  workers,  there  is  an  enor- 
mous mass  of  the  lowest  order.  No  other  city 
offers  so  varied  a  range  of  employment,  and 
there  is  none  where  so  large  a  number  are  found 
earning  a  wage  far  below  the  "  life  limit." 

The  better-paying  trades  are  filled  with  women 
who  have  had  some  form  of  training  in  school  or 
home,  or  have  passed  from  one  occupation  to 
another,  till  that  for  which  they  had  most  apti- 
tude has  been  determined.  That,  however,  to 
which  all  the  more  helpless  turn  at  once,  as  the 
one  thing  about  the  doing  of  which  there  can  be 
no  doubt  or  difficulty,  is  the  one  most  over- 


Conditions  in  the  United  States.     195 

crowded,  most  underpaid,  and  with  its  scale  of 
payments  lessening  year  by  year.  The  girl  too 
ignorant  to  reckon  figures,  too  dull-witted  to 
learn  by  observation,  takes  refuge  in  sewing 
in  one  of  its  many  forms  as  the  one  thing  possi- 
ble to  all  grades  of  intelligence ;  often  the  need 
of  work  for  older  women  arises  from  the  death 
or  evil  habits  of  the  natural  head  of  the  family, 
and  fortunes  have  sunk  to  so  low  an  ebb  that  at 
times  the  only  clothing  left  is  on  the  back  of  the 

Corker   in   the    last   stages    of    demoralization. 

Employment  in  a  respectable  place  thus  be- 
comes impossible,  and  the  sole  method  of 
securing  work  is  through  the  middlemen  or 
sweaters,  who  ask  no  questions  and  require  no 
reference,  but  make  as  large  a  profit  as  can  be 
wrung  from  the  helplessness  and  bitter  need  of 
those  with  whom  they  reckon. 

The  difficulties  to  be  faced  by  the  woman 
whose  only  way  of  self-support  is  limited  to  the 
needle,  whether  in  machine  or  handwork,  are 
fourfold :  first,  her  own  incompetency  must 
very  often  head  the  list,  and  prevent  her  from 
securing  first-class  work  ;  second,  middlemen  or 
sweaters  lower  the  price  to  starvation  point; 
third,  contract  work  done  in  prisons  or  reforma- 


1 96  Women    Wage-Earners. 

tories  brings  about  the  same  result;  and  fourth, 
she  is  underbid  from  still  another  quarter,  —  that 
of  the  countrywoman  living  at  home,  who  takes 
the  work  at  any  price  offered. 

The  Report  of  the  New  York  Bureau  of  Labor 
for  1885  contains  a  mass  of  evidence  so  fearful 
in  its  character,  and  demonstrating  conditions  of 
life  so  tragic  for  the  worker,  and  so  shameful  on 
the  part  of  the  employer,  that  general  attention 
was  for  the  time  aroused.  It  is  impossible  here 
to  make  more  than  this  general  statement  re- 
ferring all  readers  to  the  report  itself  for  full 
detail.  Thousands  herded  together  in  tenement 
houses  and  received  a  daily  wage  of  from  twenty- 
five  to  sixty  cents,  the  day's  labor  being  often 
sixteen  hours  long.  "  The  Bitter  Cry  of  Out- 
cast London  "  found  its  parallel  here,  nor  has 
there  been  any  diminution  of  the  numbers 
involved,  though  at  some  points  conditions  have 
been  improved.  But  the  facts  recorded  in  the 
report  are  practically  the  same  to-day ;  and  the 
income  of  many  workers  falls  below  two  dollars 
a  week,  from  which  sum  food,  clothing,  light, 
fuel,  and  rent  are  to  be  provided  for.  The  sum 
and  essence  of  every  wrong  and  injustice  that 
can  hedge  about  the  worker  is  found  at  this 


Conditions  in  the   United  States.      197 

point,  and  remains  a  problem  to  every  worker 
among  the  poor,  the  solving  of  which  will  mean 
the  solution  of  the  whole  labor  question. 

New  Jersey  reports  have  from  the  beginning 
followed  the  phases  of  the  labor  movement  with 
a  keen  intelligence  and  interest.  They  give 
general  conditions  as  much  the  same  as  those  of 
New  York  State.  The  wage-rate  is  but  $5  ;  and 
Newark  especially,  a  city  which  is  filled  with 
manufacturing  establishments  of  every  order, 
reproduces  some  of  the  evil  conditions  of  New 
York  City,  though  in  far  less  degree.  Taking 
the  State  as  a  whole,  legislation  has  done  much 
to  protect  the  worker,  and  other  reforms  are 
persistently  urged  by  the  bureau.  They  are 
needed.  In  the  official  report  of  conditions 
among  the  linen-thread  spinners  of  Paterson  we 
find :  "  In  one  branch  of  this  industry  women 
are  compelled  to  stand  on  a  stone  floor  in  water 
the  year  round,  most  of  the  time  barefoot,  with 
a  spray  of  water  from  a  revolving  cylinder  flying 
constantly  against  the  breast;  and  the  coldest 
night  in  winter,  as  well  as  the  warmest  in  sum- 
mer, these  poor  creatures  must  go  to  their 
homes  with  water  dripping  from  their  under- 
clothing along  their  path,  because  there  could 


1 98  Women   Wage-Earners. 

not  be  'space  or  a  few  moments  allowed  them 
wherein  to  change  their  clothing."  1 

Thus  much  for  the  East;  and  we  turn  to  the 
West,  where  some  of  the  most  practical  and 
suggestive  forms  of  investigation  are  now  in  full 
operation. 

1  Report  of  the   Bureau  of  Labor  for  the  State  of  New 

Jersey,  1888. 


Conditions  in  the   Western  States.     199 


X. 


GENERAL   CONDITIONS   IN  THE   WESTERN 
STATES. 

THE  reports  from  Kansas  and  Wisconsin 
give  a  wage  but  slightly  above  that  of 
New  Jersey,  the  weekly  average  being  $5.27. 
Of  the  50,000  women  at  work  in  1889, —  the 
number  having  now  nearly  doubled, —  but 
6,000  were  engaged  in  manufacturing,  the 
larger  portion  being  in  domestic  service.  Save 
in  one  or  two  of  the  larger  towns  and  cities, 
there  is  no  overcrowding,  and  few  of  the 
conditions  that  go  with  a  denser  population 
and  sharper  competition.  Kansas  gives  large 
space  to  general  conditions,  and,  while  urging 
better  pay,  finds  that  her  working-women  are, 
as  a  whole,  honest,  self-respecting,  moral  mem- 
bers of  the  community.  -Factory  workers  are 
few  in  proportion  to  those  in  other  occupations ; 
and  this  is  true  of  most  of  the  Western  States, 
where  general  industries  are  found  rather  than 
manufactures. 


2OO  Women   Wage-Earners. 

The  report  from  Colorado  for  1889  includes 
in  its  own  returns  certain  facts  discovered  on 
investigation  in  Ohio  and  Indiana,  and  matched 
by  some  of  the  same  nature  in  Colorado.  The 
methods  of  Eastern  competition  had  been 
adopted,  and  Commissioner  Rice  reports :  — 

"In  one  of  the  large  cities  of  Ohio  the  labor 
commissioners  of  that  State  discovered  that  shirts 
were  being  made  for  36  cents  a  dozen ;  and  that 
the  rules  of  one  establishment  paying  such  wages 
employing  a  large  number  of  females,  required  that 
the  day's  labor  should  commence  and  terminate 
with  prayer  and  thanksgiving." 

In  Indiana  matters  appear  even  worse.  By 
personal  investigation,  it  was  found  that  the 
following  rates  of  wages  ,  were  being  paid  in 
manufacturing  establishments  in  Indianapolis : 
For  making  shirts,  30  to  60  cents  a  dozen ; 
overalls,  40  to  60  cents  a  dozen  pairs ;  pants, 
50  cents  to  $1.25  per  dozen  pairs.  "  In  our 
own  State,"  writes  the  commissioner,  "  owing  to 
Eastern  competition  on  the  starvation  wage 
plan,  are  found  women  and  girls  working  for 
mere  subsistence,  though  the  prices  paid  here 
are  a  shade  higher.  It  is  found  that  shirts 


Conditions  in  the   Western  States.     201 

are   made    at  80   cents    a   dozen,  and   summer 
dresses  from  25  cents  upward." 

Prices  are  higher  here  than  at  almost  any 
other  portion  of  the  United  States,  and  thus  the 
wage  gives  less  return.  In  spite  of  the  general 
impression  that  women  fare  well  at  this  point, 
the  report  gives  various  details  which  seem  to 
prove  abuses  of  many  orders.  It  made  special 
investigation  into  the  conditions  of  domestic 
service,  that  in  hotels  and  large  boarding-houses, 
being  found  to  be  full  of  abuses,  though  condi- 
tions as  a  whole  were  favorable.  In  so  new  a 
State  there  are  few  manufacturing  interests  ;  and 
the  factories  investigated  are  many  of  them  re- 
ported as  showing  an  almost  criminal  disregard 
of  the  comfort  and  interests  of  the  employees. 
Aside  from  this,  the  report  indicates  much 
the  same  general  conditions  as  prevail  in  other 
States. 

In  Minnesota,  with  its  average  wage  of  $6  per 
week,  there  are  few  factories,  —  manufacturing 
being  confined  to  clothing,  boots  and  shoes, 
and  a  few  other  forms.  Domestic  service  has 
the  largest  number  of  women  employed,  and 
stores  and  trades  absorb  the  remainder.  There 
is  no  overcrowding  save  here  and  there  in  the 


2O2  Women   Wage- Earners. 

cities,  as  in  St.  Paul  or  Minneapolis,  where 
girls  often  club  together  in  rooming.  While 
many  of  the  workers  are  Scandinavian,  many 
are  native  born ;  and  for  the  latter  there  is 
often  much  thrift  and  a  comfortable  standard 
of  living.  The  same  complaints  as  to  lowness 
of  wage,  resulting  from  much  the  same  causes 
as  those  specified  elsewhere,  are  heard ;  and 
in  the  clothing  manufacture  wages  are  kept 
at  the  lowest  possible  point.  As  a  whole,  the 
returns  indicate  more  comfort  than  in  Colorado, 
but  leave  full  room  for  betterment.  The  chap- 
ter on  "  Domestic  Service"  shows  many  strong 
reasons  why  girls  prefer  factory  or  general 
work  to  this;  and  as  the  views  of  heads  of 
employment  agencies  are  also  given,  unusual 
opportunity  is  afforded  for  forming  just  judg- 
ment in  the  matter. 

Next  on  the  list  comes  the  report  from  Cali- 
fornia for  1887  and  1888.  The  resources  of 
the  bureau  were  so  limited  that  it  was  impossi- 
ble to  obtain  returns  for  the  whole  State,  and 
the  commissioner  therefore  limited  his  inquiry 
to  a  thorough  investigation  of  the  working- 
women  of  San  Francisco,  in  number  about 
twenty  thousand.  The  State  has  but  one 


Conditions  in  the  Western  States.     203 


cotton-mill,  but  there  are  silk,  jute,  woollen, 
corset,  and  shirt  factories,  with  many  minor 
industries.  Home  and  general  sanitary  condi- 
tions were  all  investigated,  the  bureau  following 
the  general  lines  pursued  by  all. 

Wages  are  considered  at  length;  and  Com- 
missioner Tobin  states  that  the  rate  paid  to 
women  in  California  "  does  not  compare  favor- 
ably with  the  rates  paid  to  women  in  the 
Eastern  States,  as  do  the  wages  of  men,  for  the 
reason  that  Chinese  come  more  into  competi- 
tion with  women  than  with  men.  This  is 
especially  the  case  among  seamstresses,  and  in 
nearly  all  our  factories ...  in  other  lines  of 
labor  the  wages  paid  to  females  in  this  State  are 
generally  higher  than  elsewhere." 

Rent,  food,  and  clothing  cost  more  in  Cali- 
fornia than  in  the  Eastern  States.  The  wage- 
tables  show  that  the  tendency  is  to  limit  a 
woman's  wage  to  a  dollar  a  day,  even  in  the 
best  paid  trades,  and  as  much  below  this  as 
labor  can  be  obtained. 

In  shirt-making,  Commissioner  Tobin  states 
that  she  is  worse  off  than  in  any  of  the  Eastern 
States.  Clothing  of  all  orders  pays  as  little 
as  possible,  the  best  workwomen  often  making 


204  Women    Wage- Earners. 

not  over  $2.87  per  week.  Even  at  these 
starvation  rates,  girls  prefer  factory  work  to 
domestic  service;  and  as  this  phase  was  also 
investigated,  we  have  another  chapter  of  most 
valuable  and  suggestive  information.  In  spite  of 
low  wages  and  all  the  hardship  resulting,  Working 
women  and  girls  as  a  whole  are  found  to  be 
precisely  what  the  reports  state  them  to  be,  — 
hard-working,  honest,  and  moral  members  of 
the  community.  General  conditions  are  much 
the  same  as  those  of  Colorado,  the  summary 
for  all  the  States  from  which  reports  have 
come  being  that  the  average  wage  is  insuf- 
ficient to  allow  of  much  more  than  mere 
subsistence. 

The  labor  reports  for  the  State  of  Missouri 
for  1889  and  1890  do  not  deal  directly  with 
the  question  of  women  wage-earners;  but 
indirectly  much  light  is  thrown  by  the  investi- 
gation, in  that  for  1889,  into  the  cost  of  living 
and  the  home  conditions  of  many  miners  and 
workers  in  general  trades  ;  while  that  for  1890 
covers  a  wider  field,  and  gives,  with  general 
conditions  for  all  workers,  detailed  information 
as  to  many  frauds  practised  upon  them.  The 
commissioner,  Lee  Merriweather,  is  so  identified 


Conditions  in  the   Western  States.     205 


with  the  interests  of  the  worker,  whether  man  or 
woman,  that  a  formal  report  from  him  on  women 
wage-earners  would  have  had  especial  value. 

Last  on  the  list  of  State  reports  comes  an 
admirable  one  from  Michigan,  prepared  by 
Labor  Commissioner  Henry  A.  Robinson,  issued 
in  February,  1892,  which  devotes  nearly  two 
hundred  pages  to  women  wage-earners,  and  gives 
careful  statistics  of  137  different  trades  and  378 
occupations.  Personal  visits  were  made  to 
13,436  women  and  girls  living  in  the  most  im- 
portant manufacturing  towns  and  cities  of  the 
State ;  and  the  blanks,  which  were  prepared  in 
the  light  of  the  experience  gained  by  the  work 
of  other  bureaus,  contained  129  questions,  classi- 
fied as  follows:  social,  28;  industrial,  12;  hours 
of  labor,  14;  economic,  54;  sanitary,  21  ;  and 
seven  other  questions  as  to  dress,  societies, 
church  attendance,  with  remarks  and  suggestions 
by  the  women  workers.  The  result  is  a  very 
minute  knowledge  of  general  conditions,  the 
series  of  tables  given  being  admirably  pre- 
pared. In  those  on  the  hours  of  labor  it  is 
found  that  domestic  service  exacts  the  greatest 
number  of  hours ;  one  class  returning  fourteen 
hours  as  the  rule.  In  this  lies  a  hint  of  the 


206  Women    Wage-Earners. 

increasing  objection  to  domestic  service,  — 
longer  hours  and  less  freedom  being  the  chief 
counts  against  it.  The  final  summary  gives 
the  average  wage  for  the  State  as  $4.86;  the 
highest  weekly  average  for  women  workers 
employed  as  teachers  or  in  public  positions 
being  $10.78. 

The  remarks  and  suggestions  of  the  women 
themselves  are  extraordinarily  helpful.  Outside 
the  cities  organization  among  them  is  unknown; 
but  it  is  found  that  those  trades  which  are  organ- 
ized furnish  the  best  paid  and  most  intelligent 
class  of  girls,  who  conceived  at  once  the  benefits 
of  a  labor  bureau,  and  answered  fully  and 
promptly.  The  hours  of  work  in  all  industries 
ranged  from  nine  to  ten,  and  the  wage  paid  was 
found  to  be  a  little  more  than  fifty  per  cent  less 
than  that  of  men  engaged  in  the  same  work.  A 
large  proportion  supported  relatives,  and  general 
conditions  as  to  living  were  of  much  the  same 
order  of  comfort  and  discomfort  as  those  given  in 
other  reports.  The  fact  that  this  report  is  the 
latest  on  this  subject,  and  more  minute  in  detail 
than  has  before  been  possible,  makes  it  invalua- 
ble to  the  student  of  social  conditions  ;  and  it  is 
entertaining  reading,  even  for  the  average  reader. 


Conditions  in  the   Western  States.     207 

We  come  now  to  the  final  report,  in  some 
ways  a  summary  of  all, —  that  of  the  United 
States  Labor  Department  at  Washington,  and 
the  work  for  1889. 

In  the  twenty-two  cities  investigated  by  the 
agents  of  this  bureau,  the  average  age  at  which 
girls  began  work  was  found  to  be  15  years  and 
4  months.  Charleston,  S.  C,  gives  the  highest 
average,  it  being  there  18  years  and  7  months, 
and  Newark,  N.  J.,  the  lowest, —  14  years  and  7 
months.  The  average  period  in  which  all  had 
been  engaged  in  their  present  occupations  is 
shown  to  be  4  years  and  9  months ;  while  of  the 
total  number  interviewed,  9,540  were  engaged  in 
their  first  attempt  to  earn  a  living. 

As  against  the  opinion  often  expressed  that 
foreign  workers  are  in  the  majority,  we  find  that 
of  the  whole  number  given,  14,120  were  native 
born.  Of  the  foreign  born,  Ireland  is  most 
largely  represented,  having  936 ;  and  Germany 
comes  next,  with  775.  In  the  matter  of  parentage, 
12,907  had  foreign-born  mothers.  The  number 
of  single  women  included  in  the  report  is  15,387; 
745  were  married,  and  2,038  widowed,  from 
which  it  is  evident  that,  as  a  rule,  it  is  single 
women  who  are  fighting  the  industrial  fight  alone. 


208  Women   Wage- Earners. 

They  are  not  only  supporting  themselves,  but  are 
giving  their  earnings  largely  to  the  support  of 
others  at  home.  More  than  half — 8,754 — do 
this  ;  and  9,813,  besides  their  occupation,  help 
in  the  home  housekeeping.  Of  the  total  num- 
ber, 4,928  live  at  home,  but  only  701  of  them 
receive  aid  or  board  from  their  families.  The  aver- 
age number  in  these  families  is  5.25,  and  each 
contains  2.48  workers. 

Concerning  education,  church  attendance, 
home  and  shop  conditions,  15,831  reported. 
Of  these,  10,458  were  educated  in  American 
public  schools,  and  5,375  in  other  schools; 
5,854  attend  Protestant  churches;  7,769  the 
Catholic,  and  367  the  Hebrew.  A  very  large 
percentage,  comprehending  3,209,  do  not  attend 
church  at  all. 

In  home  conditions  12,120  report  themselves 
as  "  comfortable,"  while  4,692  give  home  con- 
ditions as  "  poor."  "  Poor,"  to  the  ordinary 
observer,  is  to  be  interpreted  as  wretched,  includ- 
ing overcrowding,  and  all  the  numberless  evils 
of  tenement-house  life,  which  is  the  portion  of 
many.  A  side  light  is  thrown  on  personal  char- 
acteristics of  the  workers,  in  the  tables  of 
earnings  and  lost  time.  Out  of  12,822  who 


Conditions  in  the  Western  States.     209 


reported,  373  earn  less  than  $100  a  year,  and 
this  class  has  an  average  of  86.5  lost  days  for 
the  year  covered  by  the  investigation.  With  the 
increase  of  earnings,  the  lost  time  decreases,  the 
2,147  wno  earn  fr°m  $200  to  $450  losing  but 
37.8;  while  398,  earning  from  $350  to  $500  a 
year,  lost  but  18.3  days. 

Deliberate  cruelty  and  injustice  on  the  part  of 
the  employer  are  encountered  only  now  and 
then  ;  but  competition  forces  the  working  in  as 
inexpensive  a  manner  as  possible,  and  thus  often 
makes  what  must  sum  up  as  cruelty  and  injustice 
necessary  to  the  continued  existence  of  the 
employer  as  an  industrial  factor.  Home  condi- 
tions are  seldom  beyond  tolerable,  and  very 
often  intolerable.  Inspection,  —  the  efficiency 
of  which  has  greatly  increased,  —  the  demand 
by  the  organized  charities  at  all  points  for 
women  inspectors,  and  the  gradual  growth  of 
popular  interest  are  bringing  about  a  few 
improvements,  and  will  bring  more ;  but  the 
mass  everywhere  are  as  stated.  Ignorance  and 
the  vices  that  accompany  ignorance  —  want  of 
thoroughness,  unpunctuality,  thriftlessness,  and 
improvidence  —  are  all  in  the  count  against  the 
lowest  order  of  worker;  but  the  better  class, 


2io  Women   Wage- Earners. 

and  indeed  the  large  proportion  of  the  lower,  are 
living  honest,  self-respecting,  infinitely  dreary 
lives. 

It  is  a  popular  belief,  already  referred  to  else- 
where, that  the  working-women  form  a  large 
proportion  of  the  numbers  who  fill  houses  of 
prostitution  ;  and  that  "  night-walkers "  are 
made  up  chiefly  from  the  same  class.  Nothing 
could  be  further  from  the  truth,  —  the  testimony 
of  the  fifteenth  annual  report  of  the  Massachu- 
setts Bureau  of  Labor  being  in  the  same  line  as 
that  of  all  in  which  investigation  of  the  subject 
has  been  made,  and  all  confirming  the  opinion 
given.  The  investigation  of  the  Massachusetts 
Bureau  in  fourteen  cities  showed  clearly  that  a 
very  small  proportion  among  working-women 
entered  this  life.  The  largest  number,  classed 
by  occupations,  came  from  the  lowest  order  of 
worker,  those  employed  in  housework  and  hotels ; 
and  the  next  largest  was  found  among  seam- 
stresses, employees  of  shirt-factories,  and 
cloak-makers,  all  of  these  industries  in  which 
under  pay  is  proverbial.  The  great  majority, 
receiving  not  more  than  five  dollars  a  week,  earn 
it  by  seldom  less  than  ten  hours  a  day  of  hard 
labor,  and  not  only  live  on  the  sum,  but  assist 


Conditions  in  the  Western  States.     2 1 1 


friends,  contribute  to  general  household  expenses, 
dress  so  as  to  appear  fairly  well,  and  have  learned 
every  art  of  doing  without.  More  than  this, 
since  the  deepening  interest  in  their  lives,  and 
the  formation  of  working-girls'  clubs  and  socie- 
ties of  many  orders,  they  contribute  from  this 
scanty  sum  enough  to  rent  meeting-rooms,  pay 
for  instruction  in  many  classes,  and  provide  a 
relief  fund  for  sick  and  disabled  members. 

This  is  the  summary  of  conditions  as  a  whole, 
and  we  pass  now  to  the  specific  evils  and  abuses 
in  trades  and  general  industries. 


2 1 2  Women   Wage-Earners. 


XL 


SPECIFIC    EVILS    AND    ABUSES    IN    FACTORY   LIFE 
AND    IN    GENERAL    TRADES. 

"  TT  AS  civilization  civilized?"  is  the  invol- 
JLJL  untary  question,  as  one  by  one  the  fear- 
ful conditions  hedging  about  workers  on  either 
side  of  the  sea  become  apparent.  At  once,  in 
any  specific  investigation,  we  face  abuses  for 
which  the  system  of  production  rather  than  the 
employer  is  often  responsible,  and  for  which 
science  has  as  yet  found  either  none  or  but  a 
partial  remedy.  Alike  in  England  and  on  the 
Continent  work  and  torture  become  synonyms, 
and  flesh  and  blood  the  cheapest  of  all  nine- 
teenth-century products.  The  best  factory 
system  swarms  with  problems  yet  unsolved; 
the  worst,  as  it  may  be  found  in  many  a  remote 
district  of  the  Continent  and  even  in  England 
itself,  is  appalling  in  both  daily  fact  and  final 
result.  It  would  seem  at  times  as  if  /he  work- 
shop meant  only  a  form  of  preparation  for  the 


Evils  and  Abuses.  213 


Iospital,  the  workhouse,  and  the  prison,  since 
tie  workers  therein  become  inoculated  with 
trade  diseases,  mutilated  by  trade  appliances, 
and  corrupted  by  trade  associates,  till  no 
healthy  fibre,  mental,  moral,  or  physical, 
remains.  I 

In  the  nail  and  chain  making  districts  of 
England,  Sundays  are  often  abolished  where 
these  furnaces  flame,  and  such  rest  as  can  be 
stolen  comes  on  the  cinder-heaps.  But  these 
workers  are  few  compared  with  the  myriads 
who  must  battle  with  the  most  insidious  and 
most  potent  of  enemies,  — the  dust  of  modern 
manufacture.  There  is  dust  of  heckling  flax, 
with  an  average  of  only  fourteen  years  of  work 
for  the  strongest ;  dust  of  emery  powder,  that 
has  been  known  to  destroy  in  a  month ;  dust  of 
pottery  and  sand  and  flint,  so  penetrating  that 
the  medical  returns  give  cases  of  "  stone  "  for 
new-born  babes;  dust  of  rags  foul  with  dirt 
and  breeding  fever  in  the  picker;  dust  of  wools 
from  diseased  animals,  striking  down  the  sorter. 
Wood,  coal,  flour,  each  has  its  own,  penetrat- 
ing where  it  can  never  be  dislodged ;  and  a  less 
tangible  jpnemy  lurks  in  poisonous  paints  for 
flowers  or  wall-paper,  and  in  white  lead,  the 


2 1 4  Women   Wage- Earners. 

foundation  of  other  paints,  —  blotching  the 
skin  of  children,  and  ending  for  many  in 
blindness,  paralysis,  and  hideous  sores. 

This  is  one  form ;  and  side  by  side  with  it 
comes  another,  dealt  with  here  and  there,  but 
as  a  rule  ignored,  — vapors  as  deadly  as  dust; 
vapors  of  muriatic  acid  from  pickling  tins;  of 
choking  chlorine  from  bleaching-rooms;  of  gas 
and  phosphorus,  which  even  now,  where  strong- 
est preventives  are  used,  still  pull  away  both 
teeth  and  jaws  from  many  a  worker  in  match- 
factories;  while  acids  used  in  cleaning,  bleach- 
ing-powders,  and  many  an  industry  where 
women  and  children  chiefly  are  employed,  eat 
into  hands  and  clothing,  and  make  each  hour  a 
torture. 

With  the  countless  forms  of  machinery  for 
stamping  and  rolling  and  cutting  and  sawing, 
there  is  yet,  in  spite  of  all  the  safeguards  the 
law  compels,  the  saying  still  heard  in  these 
shops :  "  It  takes  three  fingers  to  make  a 
stamper. "  Carelessness  often ;  but  where  two 
must  work  together,  as  is  necessary  in  tending 
many  of  these  machines,  the  partner's  inat- 
tention is  often  responsible,  and  mutilation 
comes  through  no  fault  of  one's  own.  Add 


Evils  and  Abuses.  215 


to  all  these  the  suffering  of  little  children 
taught  lace-making  at  four,  sewing  on  but- 
tons or  picking  threads  far  into  the  night, 
and  driven  through  the  long  hours  that  they 
may  add  sixpence  to  the  week's  wage,  and 
we  have  a  hint  of  the  grewsome  catalogue 
of  the  human  woe  born  of  human  need  and 
human  greed. 

For  the  United  States  there  is  a  steadily 
lessening  proportion  of  these  evils,  and  we 
shall  deal  chiefly  with  those  found  in  existence 
by  the  respective  bureaus  of  labor  at  the  time 
when  their  investigations  were  made.  Private 
and  public  investigation  made  before  their 
organization  had  brought  to  light  in  Connecti- 
cut, and  at  many  points  in  New  England,  gross 
abuses  both  in  child  labor  and  that  of  woman 
and  girl  workers.  It  is  sufficient,  however, 
for  our  purpose  to  refer  the  reader  to  the  men- 
tion of  these  contained  in  the  first  report  of 
the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of  Labor,  as  well  as 
to  Dr.  Richard  T.  Ely's  "History  of  the  Labor 
Movement  in  America,"  and  to  pass  at  once  to 
the  facts  contained  in  the  fifteenth  report  from 
Massachusetts. 

The   ventilation   of  factories   and  of   work- 


216  Women   Wage- Earners. 

rooms  in  general  is  one  of  the  first  points 
considered.  Naturally,  facts  of  this  order 
would  be  found  in  the  testimony  only  of  the 
more  intelligent.  Where  factories  are  new 
and  built  expressly  for  their  own  purposes, 
ventilation  is  considered,  and  in  many  is  excel- 
lent. But  in  smaller  ones  and  in  many  indus- 
tries the  structures  used  were  not  intended 
for  this  purpose.  Closely  built  buildings  shut 
off  both  light  and  air,  which  must  come  wholly 
from  above,  thus  preventing  circulation,  and 
producing  an  effect  both  depressing  and  wear- 
ing. The  agents  in  a  number  of  cases  found 
employees  packed  "like  sardines  in  a  box;" 
thirty-five  persons,  for  example,  in  a  small 
attic  without  ventilation  of  any  kind.  Some 
were  in  very  low-studded  rooms,  with  no  venti- 
'  lation  saye_from  windows,  causing  bad  draughts 
?and  much  sickness,  and  others"  in  basements 
where  dampness  was  addH__tn_-£^ld  and  bad 
air. 

In  many  cases  the  nature  of  the  trade  com- 
pelled closed  windows,  and  no  provision  was 
made  for  ventilation  in  any  other  way.  In  one 
case  girls  were  working  in  "little  pens  all 
shelved  over,  without  sufficient  light  or  air. 


Evils  and  Abuses.  217 

windows  not  being  open,  for  fear  of  cooling 
wax  thread  used  on  sewing-machines.'*1 

For  a  large  proportion  of  the  workrooms 
visited  or  reported  upon  was  a  condition  rang- 
ing from  dirty  to  filthy.  In  some  where  men 
and  women  were  employed  together  in  tailor- 
ing, the  report  reads  :  "  Their  shop  is  filthy  and 
unfit  to  work  in.  There  are  no  conveniences 
for  women;  and  men  and  women  use  the  same 
closets,  wash-basins,  and  drinking-cups,  etc. "  2 
In  another  a  water-closet  in  the  centre  of  the 
room  filled  it  with  a  sickening  stench;  yet 
forty  hands  were  at  work  here,  and  there  are 
many  cases  in  which  the  location  of  these 
closets  and  the  neglect  of  proper  disinfect- 
ants make  not  only  workrooms  but  factories 
breeding-grounds  of  disease. 

Lack  of  ventilation  in  almost  all  industries 
is  the  first  evil,  and  one  of  the  most  insidious. 
Other  points  affecting  health  are  found  in  the 
nature  of  certain  of  the  trades  and  the  condi- 
tions under  which  they  must  be  carried  on. 
Feather-sorters,  fur-workers,  cotton-sorters,  all 

1  Fifteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Massachusetts  Bureau  of 
Labor,  p.  68. 

2  Ibid. 


2 1 8  Women    Wage- Earners. 

workers  on  any  material  that  gives  off  dust,  are 
subject  to  lung  and  bronchial  troubles.  In 
soap-factories  the  girls'  hands  are  eaten  by  the 
caustic  soda,  and  by  the  end  of  the  day  the  fin- 
gers are  often  raw  and  bleeding.  In  making 
buttons,  pins,  and  other  manufactures  of  this 
nature,  there  is  always  liability  of  getting  the 
fingers  jammed  or  caught.  For  the  first  three 
times  the  wounds  are  dressed  without  charge. 
After  that  the  person  injured  must  pay  ex- 
penses. In  these  and  many  other  trades  work 
must  be  so  closely  watched  that  it  brings  on 
weakness  of  the  eyes,  so  that  many  girls  are 
under  treatment  for  this. 

In  bakeries  the  girls  stand  from  ten  to  six- 
teen hours  a  day,  and  break  down  after  a  short 
time.  Boots  and  shoes  oblige  being  on  the 
feet  all  day;  and  this  is  the  case  for  sales- 
women, cash-girls,  and  all  factory-workers.  In 
type-founderies  the  air  is  always  filled  with  a 
fine  dust  produced  by  rubbing,  and  the  girls 
employed  have  no  color  in  their  faces.  In 
paper-box  making  constant  standing  brings  on 
the  same  difficulties  found  among  all  workers 
who  stand  all  day;  and  they  complain  also  of 
the  poison  often  resulting  from  the  coloring 


Evils  and  Abuses.  219 


matter  used*  in  making  the  boxes.  In  book- 
binderies,  brush-manufactories,  etc.,  the  work 

on  breaks  down  the  girls. 

In  the  clothing-business,  where  the  running 
f  heavy  sewing-machines  is  done  by  foot- 

wer,  there  is  a  fruitful  source  of  disease;  and 
even  where  steam  is  used,  the  work  is  exhaust- 
ing, and  soon  produces  weakness  and  various 
difficulties. 

In  food  preparations  girls  who  clean  and 
pack  fish  get  blistered  hands  and  fingers  from 
the  saltpetre  employed  by  the  fishermen. 
Others  in  "working-stalls"  stand  in  cold  water 
all  day,  and  have  the  hands  in  cold  water;  and 
in  laundries,  confectionery  establishments,  etc., 
excessive  heat  and  standing  in  steam  make 
workers  especially  liable  to  throat  and  lung 
diseases,  as  well  as  those  induced  by  continu- 
ous standing. 

Straw  goods  produce  a  fine  dust,  and  cause  a 
constant  hacking  among  the  girls  at  work  upon 
them ;  and  the  acids  used  in  setting  the  colors 
often  produce  "acid  sores"  upon  the  ends  of 
the  fingers. 

In  match-factories,  as  already  mentioned, 
even  with  the  usual  precautions,  necrosis  often 


2  2O  Women   Wage-Earners. 

attacks  the  worker,  and  the  jaw  is  eaten  away. 
Sores,  ulcerations,  and  suffering  of  many 
orders  are  the  portion  of  workers  in  chemicals. 
In  many  cases  a  little  expenditure  on  the  part 
of  the  employer  would  prevent  this ;  but  unless 
brought  up  by  an  inspector,  no  precautions  are 
taken. 

The  question  of  seats  for  saleswomen  comes 
up  periodically,  has  been  at  some  points  legis- 
lated upon,  and  is  in  most  stores  ignored  or 
evaded.  "The  girls  look  better, —  more  as  if 
they  were  ready  for  work,"  is  the  word  of  one 
employer,  who  frankly  admitted  that  he  did 
not  mean  they  should  sit;  and  this  is  the  opin- 
ion acted  upon  by  most.  Insufficient  time  for 
meals  is  a  universal  complaint;  and  nine  times 
out  of  ten,  the  conveniences  provided  are  in- 
sufficient for  the  numbers  who  must  use  them, 
and  thus  throw  off  offensive  and  dangerous 
effluvia. 

It  is  one  of  the  worst  evils  in  shop  life,  not 
only  for  Massachusetts,  but  for  the  entire 
United  States,  that  in  all  large  stores,  where 
fixed  rules  must  necessarily  be  adopted,  girls 
are  forced  to  ask  men  for  permission  to  go  to 
closets,  and  often  must  run  the  gauntlet  of  men 


Evils  and  Abuses.  221 

and  boys.     All  physicians  who  treat  this  class 
testify  to  the  fact  that  many  become  seriously 

liseased  as  the  result  of  unwillingness  to  sub- 

;ct  themselves  to  this  ordeal. 
One  of  the  ablest  factory -inspectors  in  this 
mntry,  or  indeed  in  any  country,  Mrs.  Fanny 
Ames  of  Boston,  reports  this  as  one  of  the 
least  regarded  points  in  a  large  proportion  of 
the  factories  and  manufacturing  establishments 
visited,  but  adds  that  it  arises  often  from  pure 
ignorance  and  carelessness,  and  is  remedied  as 
soon  as  attention  is  called  to  it. 

Taking  up  the  other  New  England  reports  in 
which  reference  to  these  evils  is  found,  the  tes- 
timony is  the  same.  Law  is  often  evaded  or 
wholly  set  aside,  — at  times  through  careless- 
ness, at  others  wilfully.  The  most  exhaustive 
treatment  of  this  subject  in  all  its  bearings  is 
found  in  the  report  of  the  New  Jersey  Bureau 
of  Labor  for  1889,  the  larger  portion  of  it  be- 
ing  devoted  to  the  fullest  consideration  of  the 
hygiene  of  occupation,  the  diseases  peculiar  to 
special  trades,  and  general  sanitary  conditions 
and  methods  of  working,  not  only  in  "  danger- 
ous, unhealthy,  or  noxious  trades,"  but  in  all. 
Commissioner  Bishop,  from  whose  report  quo- 


222  Women   Wage- Earners. 

tations  have  already  been  made  (p.  197),  gives 
many  instances  of  working  under  fearful  condi- 
tions, absolutely  destructive  to  health  and  often 
to  morals;  and  the  report  may  be  regarded  as 
one  of  the  most  authoritative  words  yet  spoken 
in  this  direction. 

The  Factory  Inspection  Law  for  the  State  of 
New  York,  in  detail  much  the  same  as  that  of 
Massachusetts,  is  sufficiently  full  and  explicit 
to  secure  to  all  workers  better  conditions  than 
any  as  yet  attained  save  in  isolated  cases. 
There  is,  however,  constant  violation  of  its 
most  vital  points;  and  this  must  remain  true 
for  all.  States,  until  the  number  of  inspectors 
is  made  in  some  degree  adequate  to  the  demand. 
At  present  they  are  not  only  seriously  over- 
worked, but  find  it  impossible  to  cover  the 
required  ground.  The  law  which  stands  at 
present  as  the  demand  to  be  made  by  all  fac- 
tory-workers and  all  interested  in  intelligent 
legislation,  will  be  found  in  the  Appendix. 

Destructive  to  health  and  morals  as  are  often 
the  factories  and  workshops  in  which  women 
must  work,  they  play  far  less  part  in  their  lives 
than  the  homes  afforded  by  the  great  cities, 
where  the  poor  herd  in  quarters, —  at  their  best 


Evils  and  Abuses.  223 

only  tolerable  shelters,  at  their  worst  unfit  for 
man  or  beast.  It  is  the  tenement-house  question 
that  in  these  words  presents  itself  for  consider- 
ation, and  that  makes  part  of  the  general  prob- 
lem. Taking  New  York  as  illustrative  of  some 
of  the  worst  forms  of  over-crowding,  though 
Boston  and  Chicago  are  not  far  behind,  we 
turn  to  the  work  of  one  of  the  closest  and  most 
competent  of  observers,  Dr.  Annie  S.  Daniel, 
for  many  years  physician  in  charge  of  out-prac- 
tice for  the  New  York  Infirmary  for  Women 
and  Children.  The  report  of  this  practice  for 
1891  includes  a  series  of  facts  bearing  vitally 
on  every  phase  of  woman's  labor.  Known  as 
an  expert  in  these  directions,  her  testimony 
was  called  for  in  the  examination  of  1893  into 
the  sweating-system  of  New  York,  made  by  a 
congressional  committee  and  now  on  record  in 
a  report  to  be  had  on  application  to  the  New 
York  Congressmen  at  Washington.1  For  years 
she  has  watched  the  effects  of  child-labor,  tak- 
ing hundreds  of  measurements  of  special  cases, 
and  studying  the  effects  of  the  life  mothers 

1  House  of  Representatives  Report  No.  2309 :  Report  of 
the  Committee  on  Manufactures  on  the  Sweating- System, 
House  of  Representatives,  January,  1893. 


2  24  Women    Wage-Earners. 

and  children  alike  were  compelled  to  live. 
"The  medical  problems,"  she  writes,  "which 
present  themselves  to  the  physician  are  so 
closely  connected  with  the  social  problems  that 
it  is  impossible  to  study  one  alone.  The  peo- 
ple are  sick  because  of  insufficient  food  and 
clothing  and  unsanitary  surroundings,  and 
these  conditions  exist  because  the  people  are 
poor.  They  are  often^poor  because  they  have 
no  work."  At  another  point,  commenting  on 
drinking  among  the  poor,  she  writes :  "Drink- 
ing among  the  women  is  increasing.  In  the 
majority  of  cases  we  have  studied,  it  has  been 
the  effect  of  poverty,  not  the  cause." 

In  the  region  between  Houston  Street  and 
Canal  Street,  known  now  to  be  the  most  thickly 
populated  portion  of  the  inhabited  globe,  every 
house  is  a  factory;  that  is,  some  form  of  manu- 
facture is  going  on  in  every  room.  The  aver- 
age family  of  five  adds  to  itself  from  two  to  ten 
more,  often  a  sewing-machine  to  each  person ; 
and  from  six  or  seven  in  the  morning  till  far 
into  the  night  work  goes  on,  —  usually  the 
manufacture  of  clothing.  Here  contagious 
diseases  pass  from  one  to  another.  Here  babies 
are  born  and  babies  die,  the  work  never  paus- 


Evils  and  Abuses.  225 

ing  save  for  death  and  hardly  for  that.  In  one 
of  these  homes  Dr.  Daniel  found  a  family  of 
five  making  cigars,  the  mother  included.  "  Two 
of  the  children  were  ill  of  diphtheria.  Both 
parents  attended  to  these  children ;  they  would 
syringe  the  nose  of  each  child,  and  without 
washing  their  hands  return  to  their  cigars. 
We  have  repeatedly  observed  the  same  thing 
when  the  work  was  manufacturing  clothing 
and  undergarments  to  be  bought  as  well  by  the 
rich  as  by  the  poor.  Hand-sewed  shoes,  made 
for  a  fashionable  Broadway  shoe-store,  were 
sewed  at  home  by  a  man  in  whose  family  were 
three  children  sick  with  scarlet -fever.  And 
such  instances  are  common.  Only  death  or 
lack  of  work  closes  tenement-house  manufac- 
tories. .  .  .  When  we  consider  that  stopping 
this  work  means  no  food  and  no  roof  over  their 
heads,  the  fact  that  the  disease  may  be  carried 
by  their  work  cannot  be  expected  to  impress 
the  people." 

Farther  on  in  the  report,  she  adds :  "  The 
people  can  neither  be  moral  nor  healthy  until 
they  have  decent  homes."  Yet  the  present 
wage-rate  makes  decent  homes  impossible;  and 
though  Brooklyn  and  Boston  have  a  few  model 
'5 


226  Women  Wage- Earners. 

tenement -houses,  New  York  has  none,  the  ex- 
periment of  making  over  in  part  a  few  old  ones 
hardly  counting  save  in  intention.  Into  these 
homes  respectable,  ambitious,  hard-working 
girls  and  women  are  compelled  to  go.  That 
they  live  decent  lives  speaks  worlds  for  the 
intrinsic  goodness  and  purity  of  nature  which 
in  the  midst  of  conditions  intolerable  to  every 
sense  still  preserves  these  characteristics. 
That  they  must  live  in  such  surroundings  is 
one  of  the  deepest  disgraces  of  civilization. 

As  to  wages,  concerning  which  there  seems 
to  be  a  general  opinion  that  steady  rise  has 
gone  on,  we  find  Dr.  Daniel  giving  the  rates 
for  many  years.  She  writes:  — 

"  Wages  have  steadily  decreased.  Among  the 
women  who  earned  the  whole  or  part  of  the  income, 
finishing  pantaloons  was  the  most  common  occupa- 
tion. For  this  work,  in  1881,  they  received  ten  to 
fifteen  cents  a  pair;  for  the  same  work  in  1891,  three 
to  five,  at  the  most  ten  cents  a  pair.  The  women 
doing  this  work  claim  that  wages  are  reduced  because 
of  the  influx  of  Italian  women,  but  few  Italian  women 
do  the  poor  quality  of  trousers.  While  we  are  glad  to 
note  some  excellent  sanitary  changes  in  the  tenement- 
house  construction,  the  people  we  believe  to  be  just 
as  poor,  just  as  overcrowded  and  wretched  to-day,  as 


Evils  and  Abuses.  227 


in  1 88 1  and  1853,  the  only  difference  being  that  there 
are  a  greater  number  of  people  who  are  poor  now." 

These  statements  apply  in  great  part  to  un- 
skilled labor;  but  there  is  always  in  these 
houses  a  large  proportion  of  skilled  labor  dis- 
abled by  sickness  or  other  causes  and  out  of 
work  for  the  time  being.  The  wage  at  best 
for  skilled  labor  is  given  by  the  Labor  Commis- 
sioner as  $5.29.  Let  any  one  study  the  possi- 
bilities of  this  sum  per  week,  and  the  wonder 
will  arise,  not  why  living  is  not  easier,  but  how 
it  goes  on  at  all. 

Specific  evils  speak  for  themselves,  and  are 
gradually  being  eliminated.  They  are  before 
the  eyes,  and  the  least  experienced  student  may 
gauge  their  bearing  and  judge  their  effects. 

1  foil-   wjder.r  pa  rhino;   |-|iaru^.^y~  of  -  -all   the.  ...WO.rst  J 

abuses  of  the  worst  trades  is  the  wrong  done  , 
to  the  child  and  to  family  life  as  a  whole,  by 
the  continuous  labor  of  married  women  in  fac- 
tories,  or  at  any  occupation  which  demands, 
for  ten  hours  or  more  a  day,  unremitting  toil^J 
At  all  points  where  scientific  observation   has 
been  made  the  expert  lifts  up  a  warning  voice. 
It  is   the  future  of  the   race  that  is  in  quesx 
tion.     Child  labor,  while  not  entering  directly 


228  Women   Wage- Earners. 

into  our  present  examination,  is,  as  has  already 
been  said,  inextricably  bound  up  with  the  ques- 
tion of  woman's  work  and  wages.  The  two  must 
be  studied  together;  and  for  our  own  country 
there  are  already  admirable  monographs  on 
this  subject,1  two  authoritative  ones  coming 
from  the  American  Economic  Association,  and 
one  hardly  less  so  from  a  close  and  keen  obser- 
ver whose  scientific  training  gives  her  equal 
right  to  form  conclusions.2 

A  dispassionate  observer,  Mr.  W.  Stanley 
Jevons,  whose  conclusions  are  founded  on  long 
investigation  and  deduction,  years  ago  wrote 
words  which  he  has  at  various  times  empha- 
sized and  repeated,  and  which  sum  up  the  evils 
to  which  the  infancy  of  the  children  of  over- 
worked mothers  is  subject,  as  well  as  the  con- 
sequences to  the  State  in  which  they  are  born, 
and  which  faces  the  results  of  the  system  which 
produces  them.  He  writes  as  follows:  — 

"  We  can  help  evolution  by  the  aid  of  its  own  high- 
est and  latest  product,  —  science.  When  all  the 

1  Child  Labor.      By  William  F.  Willoughby,  A.B.     Child 
Labor.      By  Miss  Clare  de  Grafenried,      Publications  of  the 
American  Economic  Association,  vol   v.  no.  2. 

2  Our  Toiling  Children.     By  Florence  Kelley,  W.  C.  T.  U. 
Publishing  Association,  Chicago. 


I  Evils  and  Abuses.  229 

aching  of  medical  and  social  science  lead  us  to 
look  upon  the  absence  of  the  mother  from  the  home 
as  the  cause  of  the  gravest  possible  evils,  can  we  be 
warranted  in  standing  passively  by,  allowing  this  evil 
to  work  itself  out  to  the  bitter  end,  by  the  process  of 
natural  selection?  Something  might  perhaps  be  said 
in  favor  of  the  present  apathetic  mode  of  viewing  this 
question,  if  natural  selection  were  really  securing  the 
survival  of  the  fittest,  so  that  only  the  weakly  babes 
were  killed  off,  and  the  strong  ones  well  brought  up. 
But  it  is  much  to  be  feared  that  no  infants  ever  really 
recover  from  the  test  of  virtual  starvation  to  which 
they  are  so  ruthlessly  exposed.  The  vital  powers  are 
irreparably  crippled,  and  the  infant  grows  up  a  stunted, 
miserable  specimen  of  humanity,  the  prey  to  every 
physical  and  moral  evil."  1 

It  is  hardly  necessary  to  go  on  specifying 
special  violations  of  sanitary  law  or  special 
illustrative  cases.  The  Report  of  the  New 
York  Bureau  of  Labor  for  1885  is  a  maga- 
zine of  such  cases,  —  a  summary  of  all  the 
horrors  that  the  worst  conditions  can  include. 
Aside  from  the  revolting  pictures  of  the  life 
lived  from  day  to  day  by  the  workers  them- 
selves, it  gives  in  detail  case  after  case  of 

1  Married  Women  in  Factories.  By  W.  Stanley  Jevons, 
Contemporary  Review,  vol.  xli.  pp.  37-53 


230  Women   Wage- Earners. 

rapacity  and  over-reaching  on  the  part  of  the 
employers ;  and  parallel  ones  may  be  found  in 
every  labor  report  which  has  touched  upon  the 
subject. 

In  New  York  a  "Working  Woman's  Protec- 
tive Union,"  formed  more  than  twenty-five 
years  ago,  has  done  unceasing  work  in  settling 
disputed  claims  and  collecting  wages  unjustly 
withheld.  No  case  is  entered  on  their  books 
which  has  not  been  examined  by  their  lawyer, 
and  thus  only  well  grounded  complaints  find 
record;  but  with  even  these  precautions  the 
records  show  nearly  fifty  thousand  adjudicated 
since  they  began  work.  Many  cities  have 
special  committees,  in  the  organized  charities, 
who  seek  to  cover  the  same  ground,  but  who 
find  it  impossible  to  do  all  that  is  required. 
From  East  and  West  alike,  complaints  are 
practically  the  same.  It  is  not  only  women  in 
trades,  but  those  in  domestic  service,  who  are 
recorded  as  suffering  every  form  of  oppression 
and  injustice.  Colorado  and  California,  Kan- 
sas and  Wisconsin,  speak  the  same  word.  With 
varying  industries  wrongs  vary,  but  the  genera] 
summary  is  the  same. 

The  system  of  fines,  while  on  general  princi- 


Evils  and  Abuses.  231 

pies  often  just,  has  been  used  by  unscrupulous 
employers  to  such  a  degree  as  to  bring  the 
week's  wages  down  a  third  or  even  half.  It 
is  impossible  to  give  illustrative  instances  in 
detail;  but  all  who  deal  with  girls,  in  clubs 
and  elsewhere,  report  that  the  system  requires 
modification. 

On  the  side  of  the  employers,  and  as  bearing 
also  on  the  evils  which  are  most  marked  among 
women  workers,  we  may  quote  from  the  Gov- 
ernment Report,  "Working  Women  in  Large 
Cities":  — 

"  Actual  ill-treatment  by  employers  seems  to  be 
infrequent.  .  .  .  Foreigners  are  often  found  to  be 
more  considerate  of  their  help  than  native-born  men, 
and  the  kindest  proprietor  in  the  world  is  a  Jew  of  the 
better  class.  In  some  shops  week-workers  are  locked 
out  for  the  half-day  if  late,  or  docked  for  every  min- 
ute of  time  lost,  an  extra  fine  being  often  added. 
Piece  workers  have  great  freedom  as  to  hours,  and 
employers  complain  much  of  tardiness  and  absentee- 
ism. The  mere  existence  of  health  and  labor  laws 
insures  privileges  formerly  unheard  of;  half-holidays 
in  summer,  vacation  with  pay,  and  shorter  hours  are 
becoming  every  year  more  frequent,  better  workshops 
are  constructed,  and  more  comfortable  accommoda- 
tions are  being  furnished." 


232  Women   Wage- Earners. 

This  is  most  certainly  true,  but  more 
light  shows  the  shadows  even  more  clearly; 
and  the  fact  remains  that  every  force  must 
be  brought  to  bear,  to  remedy  the  evils  de- 
picted in  the  reports  of  the  bureaus  quoted 
here. 

The  general  conditions  of  working-women 
in  New  York  retail  stores  were  reported  upon, 
in  1890,  by  a  committee  from  the  Working- 
Woman's  Society,  at  27  Clinton  Place,  New 
York.  The  report  was  read  at  a  mass  meeting 
held  at  Chickering  Hall,  May  6,  1890;  and  its 
statements  represent  general  conditions  in  all 
the  large  cities  of  the  United  States.  It  is 
impossible  to  give  more  than  the  principal 
points  of  the  report;  but  readers  can  obtain  it 
on  application  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Associa- 
tion.1 These  are  as  follows:  — 

Hours  are  often  excessive,  and  employees 
are  not  paid  for  over-time.  Many  stores  give 
no  half-holiday,  and  keep  open  on  Saturdays 
till  ten  and  eleven  o'clock  in  the  evening,  and 
at  the  holiday  season  do  this  for  three  or  four 
weeks  nightly. 

1  Miss  Alice  Woodbridge,  Secretary  of  the  Working- Wo- 
man's Society,  27  Clinton  Place,  New  York. 


Evils  and  Abuses.  233 

Sanitary  conditions  are  usually  bad,  and 
include  bad  ventilation,  unsanitary  arrange- 
ments, and  indifference  to  the  considerations 
of  decency.  Toilet  arrangements  in  many 
:ores  are  horrible,  and  closets  for  male  and 
female  are  often  side  by  side,  with  only  slight 
partition  between.  One  hand-basin  and  towel 
serve  for  all.  Often  water  for  drink  can  be 
obtained  only  from  the  attic. 

Numbers  of  children  under  age  are  employed 
for  excessive  hours,  and  at  work  far  beyond 
their  strength,  an  investigation  having  shown 
that  over  one  hundred  thousand  children  under 
the  legal  age  of  fourteen  were  at  work  in  fac- 
tories, workshops,  and  stores. 

Service  for  a  number  of  years  often  meets 
with  no  consideration,  but  is  regarded  as  a 
reason  for  dismissal.  It  is  the  rule  in  some 
stores  to  keep  no  one  over  five  years,  lest  they 
come  to  feel  that  they  have  some  claim  on  the 
firm;  and  when  a  saleswoman  is  dismissed 
from  one  house,  she  finds  it  almost  impossible 
to  obtain  employment  in  another. 

The  wages  are  reduced  by  excessive  fines, 
employers  placing  a  value  upon  time  lost  that 
is  not  given  to  services  rendered.  The  fines 


234  Women    Wage- Earners. 

run  from  five  to  thirty  cents  for  a  few  minutes' 
tardiness.  In  some  stores  the  fines  are  divided 
at  the  end  of  the  year  between  the  timekeeper 
and  the  superintendent,  and  there  is  thus  every 
temptation  to  injustice. 
The  report  concludes :  — 

"  We  find  that,  through  low  wages,  long  hours, 
unwholesome  sanitary  conditions,  and  the  discourag- 
ing effect  of  excessive  fines,  not  only  is  the  physical 
condition  injured,  but  the  tendency  is  to  injure  the 
moral  well-being.  It  is  simply  impossible  for  a 
woman  to  live  without  assistance  on  the  low  salary  a 
saleswoman  earns,  without  depriving  herself  of  real 
necessities." 

These  were  the  conditions  which,  in  1889, 
led  to  the  formation  of  the  little  society  which, 
though  limited  in  numbers,  has  done  admirable 
and  efficient  work,  its  latest  effort  being  to 
secure  from  the  Assembly  at  Albany  a  bill 
making  inspection  of  stores  and  shops  as 
obligatory  as  that  of  factories. 

It  was  through  the  concerted  effort  of  its 
members  that  the  Factory  Inspection  Act  be- 
came a  law,  though  not  without  violent  opposi- 
tion. The  bill  originated  in  the  Working- 
Woman's  Society,  was  drawn  up  there,  sent  to 


Evils  and  Abuses.  235 

Albany  by  its  delegates,  and  passed  without 
the  aid  of  money. 

There  are  eleven  thousand  factories  in  New 
York  State,  and  only  one  inspector  to  investi- 
gate their  condition;  while  in  England,  scarce 
larger  in  territory,  forty-one  inspectors  are 
appointed  by  the  Government. 

The  Andrus  bill,  adding  to  the  power  of 
factory  inspectors,  raising  the  working  age  of 
children  to  fourteen  years,  and  prohibiting 
night  work  for  girls  under  twenty-  one  and  boys 
under  eighteen,  was  sent  with  the  Factory  Bill 
to  the  Central  Labor  Union,  and  the  women 
were  largely  instrumental  in  obtaining  the  pas- 
sage of  the  measure. 

Why  such  determined  opposition  still  meets 
every  attempt  to  bring  about  the  same  inspec- 
tion for  mercantile  establishments  cannot  be 
determined;  but  thus  far,  though  admitted  to 
be  necessary,  the  act  has  at  each  reading  been 
laid  upon  the  table.  Another  effort  will  be 
made  in  the  coming  winter  of  1893-94. 

In  spite,  however,  of  much  agitation  of  all 
phases  of  woman's  work,  it  is  only  some  wrong 
as  startling  as  that  involved  in  the  sweating- 
system  that  seems  able  to  arouse  more  than  a 


236  Women   Wage-Earners. 

temporary  interest.  One  of  the  most  able  and 
experienced  women  inspectors  of  the  United 
States  Bureau  of  Labor,  Miss  de  Grafenried, 
has  lately  written:  — 

"  It  is  an  open  question  whether  woman's  pay  is 
not  falling,  cost  and  standards  of  living  considered. 
Could  partly  supported  labor  and  children  be  elimi- 
nated, shop  employees  would  get  higher  rates.  Still 
there  are  other  economic  anomalies  that  affect 
women's  wages.  '  Wholesalers '  and  manufacturers 
shut  up  their  factories  and  '  give  out '  everything  — 
umbrellas,  coats,  hair- wigs,  and  shrouds  —  to  be  made, 
—  they  know  not  in  what  den,  or  wrung  they  care 
not  from  what  misery.  .  .  .  Again,  wages  are  de- 
pressed by  over -stimulating  piece-work ;  and  its 
unscrupulous  use  by  proprietors  who  hesitate  to  con- 
fess to  paying  women  only  $3  or  $4  a  week,  yet  who 
scale  prices  so  that  only  experts  can  earn  that  sum. 
Many  employers  cut  rates  as  soon  as,  by  desperate 
exertions,  operatives  clear  $5  a  week.  Then,  under- 
bidding from  the  unemployed  is  a  fruitful  source  of 
low  wages.  Massachusetts  has  20  per  cent  of  her 
workers  unemployed." 

These  conditions,  while  varying  as  to  num- 
bers, are  practically  the  same  for  the  work  of 
women  in  all  parts  of  the  United  States,  and 
are  matters  of  increasing  perplexity  and  sorrow 


Evils  and  Abuses.  237 

to  every  searcher  into  these  problems.  At  its 
best,  woman's  work  in  industries  is  intermit- 
tent, since  it  is  only  textile  work  that  continues 
the  year  round ;  dress  and  cloak  making,  shoe 
and  umbrella  making,  fur-sewing  and  milli- 
nery, have  specific  seasons,  in  the  intervals 
between  which  the  worker  waits  and  starves, 
or,  if  too  desperate,  goes  upon  the  streets, 
driven  there  by  the  wretched  competitive  sys- 
tem, the  evils  of  which  increase  in  direct  ratio 
to  the  longing  for  speedy  wealth.  In  short, 
matters  are  at  that  point  where  only  radical 
change  of  methods  can  better  the  situation, 
even  the  most  conservative  observer,  relying 
most  thoroughly  upon  evolution,  feeling  some- 
thing more  than  evolution  must  work  if  justice 
is  to  have  place  in-  the  present  social  scheme. 

It  is  at  this  point  that  some  consideration 
of  domestic  service  naturally  presents  itself. 
Though  regarded  often  as  no  part  of  the  labor 
question,  there  can  be  no  other  head  under 
which  to  range  it,  since  the  last  census  gives 
over  a  million  persons  engaged  in  this  occupa- 
tion, the  lowest  rough  estimate  of  wages  being 
$160,000,000  and  the  support  included  form- 
ing a  sum  at  least  as  large.  It  is  through  the 


2  38  Women   Wage-Earners. 

hands  of  the  domestic  servant  that  a  large  part 
of  the  finished  products  of  other  forms  of  labor 
must  pass,  and  the  economic  aspects  of  the 
question  grow  in  importance  with  every  year 
of  the  changing  conditions  of  American  life. 
In  no  other  occupation  is  a  just  consideration 
of  the  points  involved  so  difficult  a  task,  since 
the  mistress  who  faces  the  incompetence,  in- 
subordination, and  all  the  other  trials  involved 
in  the  relation,  suffers  too  keenly  from  the 
sense  of  individual  wrong  to  treat  the  matter 
in  the  large.  Till  it  is  so  treated,  however, 
understanding  for  both  sides  is  impossible, 
and  to  bring  about  such  understanding  is  the 
first  necessity  for  all. 

From  the  employer's  standpoint  the  advan- 
tages to  be  stated  are  as  follows :  First  and 
most  obvious  is  the  fact  that  wages  are  not 
only  relatively  but  absolutely  high;  for  aside 
from  the  actual  cash  there  are  also  board, 
lodging,  fuel,  light,  and  laundry,  all  of  which 
the  worker  in  trades  must  provide  for  herself. 
There  is  no  capital  required,  as  for  type-writer, 
sewing-machine,  or  any  appliances  for  work, 
nor  is  the  girl  forced  to  expend  anything  in 
preparation,  since  under  the  present  system 


Evils  and  Abuses.  239 

housekeepers  take  her  untrained  fresh  from 
Castle  Garden,  and  willingly  give  the  needed 
instruction,  at  the  same  time  paying  the  same 
wage  as  that  given  to  competent  service.  Pro- 
fessor Lucy  Salmon,  of  Vassar,  who  has  devoted 
much  time  to  this  subject,  reports  that,  on  ex- 
amination of  testimony  from  three  thousand 
employees,  it  is  found  that  on  a  wage  of  $3.25 
a  week  it  is  possible  to  save  annually  nearly 
$150  "in  an  occupation  involving  no  outlay, 
no  investment  of  capital,  and  few  or  no  per- 
sonal expenses."  The  wages  received  are 
relatively  higher  than  those  of  other  occupa- 
tions; for  in  Professor  Salmon's  comparison  of 
wages  received  by  three  thousand  country  and 
the  same  number  of  city  employees  it  was 
found  that  of  six  thousand  teachers  in  the 
public  schools  the  average  salary  actually  paid 
is  less  than  that  paid  to  the  average  cook  in  a 
large  city. 

The  second  advantage  lies  in  the  healthful- 
ness  of  the  work,  which  includes  not  only  regu- 
larity but  variety;  the  third,  that  a  home,  at 
least  in  all  externals,  is  insured;  the  fourth, 
that  a  training  which  makes  the  worker  more 
fit  for  married  life  is  certain ;  and  a  fifth,  that 


240  Women   Wage- Earners. 

the  work  is  congenial  and  easy  for  those  whose 
tastes  lie  in  this  direction. 

These  are  the  facts  that  are  constantly  urged 
upon  the  army  of  under-paid,  half-starving 
needlewomen  in  our  great  cities,  and  no  less 
upon  another  army  of  girls  in  shops  and  fac- 
tories, who  are  implored  to  consider  the 
advantages  of  domestic  service  and  to  give  up 
their  unnecessary  battle  with  the  limitations 
hedging  in  every  other  form  of  labor.  Aston- 
ishment that  the  girls  prefer  the  factory  and 
shop  is  unending,  nor  is  it  regarded  as  possible 
that  substantial  reason  may  and  must  exist  for 
such  choice.  As  a  means  of  arriving  at  some 
solution  of  the  problem,  some  six  hundred  em- 
ployees of  every  order  were  interviewed,  under 
circumstances  which  made  their  replies  perfectly 
free  and  full ;  and  the  results  tallied  exactly  with 
others  obtained  by  an  inquiry  in  the  Philadel- 
phia Working- Woman's  Guild,  a  society  then 
representing  seventy-two  distinct  occupations. 

A  report  of  this  inquiry  was  made  by  Mrs. 
Eliza  S.  Turner,  the  President  of  the  Guild, 
and  is  given  as  the  most  suggestive  view  of  the 
whole  subject  yet  secured.  She  writes  as 
follows :  — 


Evils  and  Abuses.  241 

"  Why  do  not  intelligent,  refined  girls  more  fre- 
quently choose  house  service  as  a  support  ?  "  The 
replies  here  given  are  as  nearly  as  possible  verbatim  : 

1.  Loss  of  freedom.    This  is  as  dear  to  women  as  to 
men,  although  we  don't  get  so  much  of  it.     The  day 
of  a  saleswoman  or  a  factory  hand  may  be  long,  but 
when  it  is  done  she  is  her  own  mistress ;  but  in  service, 
except  when  she  is  actually  out  of  the  house,  she  has 
no  hour,  no  minute,  when  her  soul  is  her  own. 

2.  Hurts  to  self-respect.     One  thing  that   makes 
housework  unpleasant  —  chamber- work,  for  instance, 
and  waiting  on  table  —  is  that  it  is  a  kind  of  personal 
service,  one  human  being  waiting  on  another.     The 
very  thing  you  would  do  without  a  thought   in  your 
own  home  for  your  own  family  seems  menial  when  it 
is  demanded  by  a  stranger. 

3.  The   very  words,  "  service  "  and  "  servant,"  are 
hateful.     It  is  all  well  enough  to  talk  about  service 
being  divine,  but  that  is  not  the  way  the  world  looks 
at  it. 

4.  Say   that   a   young   woman    well    brought    up 
undertakes  to  do  chamber- work ;    she  is  obliged  to 
associate  with  the  other  girls,  no  matter  how  uncon- 
genial they  may  be,  what  may  be   their  language  or 
personal  habits  or  table  manners.    If  she  tries  to  keep 
to  herself,  the  rest  think  she  is  taking  airs,  and  combine 
to  make  her  life  unbearable. 

5 .  Or  say  she  takes  a  place  for  general  housework ; 
to   be   alone   in    the    midst   of  others   is  crushing, 

16 


242  Women    Wage-Earners. 

—  quite  different    from   being    alone   in    one's   own 
lodgings. 

6.  I  suppose  a  soldier  does  n't  mind  being  ordered 
around  by  his  captain ;  but  in  a  family  the  mistress 
and  maid  are  so  mixed  up  that  it  is  much  harder  to 
keep  the  lines  from  tangling.     It  takes  a  very  superior 
person,  on  both  sides,  to  do  it. 

7.  I   knew  an   educated  woman  —  a  lady  —  who 
tried  it  as  a  sort  of  upper  housemaid.     The  work  was 
easy,  the  pay  good,  and  she  never  had  a  harsh  word ; 
but  they  just  seemed  unconscious  of  her  existence. 
She  said  the  gentlemen  of  the  house,  father  and  son, 
would  come  in  and  stand  before  her  to  have  her  take 
their  umbrellas  or  help  them  off  with  their  coats,  and 
sometimes  without  speaking  to  her  or  even  looking  at 
her.     There  was  something   so  humiliating  about  it 
that  she  could  n't  stand  it,  but  went  back  to  slop-shop 
sewing. 

8.  Many   mistresses    have    no    standard    of    the 
amount  of  work  a  girl   ought   to   do.     They   know 
nothing  about   housework    themselves.     If  a  girl    is 
deliberate    and   saves  herself,  they  call  her  slow;  if 
she  is  ambitious,  and  gets  her  work  done  early,  and 
they  see  her  sitting  down  in  working-hours,  they  con- 
clude that  she  is  not  earning  her  wages,  and  hunt  up 
some  extra  job  for  her.     No  matter  if  you  can't  find 
anything  undone,  if  she  is  found  sitting  about  she 
must  be  lazy. 

9.  Some   employers    think   that   after    the   more 


oft 
less 

nur: 


Evils  and  Abuses.  243 

violent  work  is  done,  it  is  only  a  rest  for  the  girl  to 
look  after  the  child  awhile.  They  don't  seem  to  real- 
ize that  if  the  mother  finds  it  such  a  relief  to  get  rid 
of  her  own  child  for  an  hour  or  so,  it  is  likely  to  be  still 
interesting  to  take  care  of  somebody  else's  child. 

10.  Many  people   think  the  position  of  a  child's 
rse  is   very    light   work   indeed,  —  mostly  just  sit- 
ting around ;  so  they  don't  hesitate  to  give  her  the 
care  of  one  or  two  children  all  day,  not  even  arrang- 
ing for  her  to  get  her  meals  without  the  oversight  of 
them ;  and  then  most  likely  put  the  baby  to  sleep 
with  her  at  night.     Any  one  minute  of  such  a   day 
may  not  be   heavy,  but  to   have    it    for    twenty-four 
hours   is   enough   to  wear  out  the  strongest  human 
being  ever  made. 

11.  I   knew  a   school-teacher  who    thought    more 
active  occupation  would  better  suit  her  health;  she 
took  a  place   as  child's  nurse.     She  loved   children, 
and  found  no  objection  to  the  work ;  but  soon  the 
employer  concluded  to  put  her  in  a  bonne's  cap  and 
apron.     My    friend   would    have    worn    and    liked    a 
nurse's  uniform,  but  she  objected  to  a  family  livery. 
On  this  question  they  parted ;  and  her  employer  hired 
an  uncouth,  ignorant  woman  to  be  her  child's  com- 
panion and  to  give  it  its  first  impressions. 

12.  In  most  houses,  however  elegant,  the  girls  have 
no  home  privacy ;  they  must  sleep,  ftot  only  in  the 
same  room,  but  most  frequently  in  the  same  bed ;  it 
is  rarely  thought  necessary  to  make  that  room  pleasant 


244  Women   Wage-Earners. 

or  even  warm  for  them  to  dress  by  or  to  sit  in  to  do 
their  own  sewing.  The  little  tastes  and  notions  of 
each  member  of  the  family,  down  to  the  youngest,  are 
provided  for;  but  a  "girl"  is  not  supposed  to  have 
any.  She  is  just  a  "  girl,"  as  a  gridiron  is  a  gridiron, 
an  article  bought  for  the  convenience  of  the  family. 
If  she  suits,  use  her  till  she  is  worn  out  and  then 
throw  her  away. 

13.  To  go  into  house  service,  even  from  the  most 
wretched  slop  or  factory  work,  is  to  lose  caste  in  our 
own  world ;  it  may  be  a  very  narrow  world,  but  it  is 
all   to   us.     A   saleswoman    or  cashier  or  teacher   is 
ashamed  to  associate  with  servants. 

14.  The  very  words,  "  No  followers,"  would  keep 
us  out  of  such  occupation.      No  self-respecting  young 
woman  is  going  to  put  herself  in  a  position  where  she 
is  not  allowed  to  entertain  her  friends,  both  male  and 
female ;  nor  where,  if  allowed,  the  only  place  thought 
fit  for  them  is  the  kitchen. 

Now,  the  above  is  not  theory,  but  testimony,  taken 
by  the  present  writer  from  the  lips  of  intelligent  work- 
ing-girls, many  of  whom  would  be  better  off  at  house- 
work than  at  their  present  occupations,  except  for  the 
objections.  And  from  a  consideration  thereof  results 
this  query  :  Given  a  certain  number  of  young  women 
of  a  class  superior  to  the  imported,  willing  to  take 
service  under  the  following  conditions,  how  many 
housekeepers  would  agree  to  the  conditions  ?  — 

i.   The    heaviest  work,  as  washing,  carrying  coal, 


Evils  and  Abuses.  245 

scrubbing  pavements,  and  the  like,  to  be  provided  for, 
if  this  be  asked,  with  consequent  deduction  in  wages. 

2.  In  families,  where  practicable,  certain  hours  of 
absolute  freedom  while  in  the  house,  especially  with 
the  child's  nurse. 

3.  Such  a  way  of  speaking,  both  to  and  of  your 
house  help,  as  testifies  to  the  world  that  you  really 
do    consider    housework    as    respectable    as    other 
occupations. 

4.  A  well-warmed,  we  11 -furnished  room,  with  sep- 
arate beds  when  desired ;  and  the  use  of  a  decent 
place  and  appointments  at  meals. 

5 .  The  privilege  of  seeing  friends,  whether  male  or 
female  ;  of  a  better  part  of  the  house  than  the  kitchen 
in  which  to  receive  them ;  and  security  from  espio- 
nage during  their  visits,  —  this  accompanied  by  proper 
restrictions  as  to  evening  hours,  and  under  the  con- 
dition that  the  work  is  not  neglected. 

6.  No  livery,  if  objected  to. 

Turning  from  this  informal  examination  of 
the  subject  to  the  few  labor  reports  which  have 
taken  up  the  matter,  it  becomes  plain  that 
domestic  service  is  in  many  points  more  un- 
desirable than  any  other  occupation  open  to 
women.  The  Labor  Commissioner  of  Minne- 
sota reports,  while  stating  all  the  advantages 
of  the  domestic  servant  over  the  general  worker, 
that  "only  a  fifth  of  those  who  employ  them 


246  Women   Wage- Earners. 

are  fit  to  deal  with  any  worker,  injustice  and 
oppression  characterizing  their  methods."  Fig- 
ures and  detailed  statements  bear  him  out  in 
this  conclusion.  The  Colorado  Commissioner 
gives  even  more  details,  and  comes  to  the  same 
conclusion;  and  though  other  reports  do  not 
take  up  the  subject  in  detail,  their  indications 
are  the  same. 

The  first  general  and  rational  presentation 
of  the  subject  in  all  its  bearings,  both  for 
employed  and  employer,  has  lately  been  made 
during  the  Woman's  Congress  at  Chicago, 
May,  1893,  in  which  the  Domestic  Science 
section  discussed  every  phase  of  wrongs  and 
remedies.1  The  latter  sum  up  in  the  forma- 
tion of  bureaus  of  employment  in  every  large 

1  The  association  then  formed,  and  from  which  much  is 
hoped,  made  the  following  summary  of  its  objects  :  — 

"  The  objects  of  this  Association  shall  be :  i.  To  awaken  the  public 
mind  to  the  importance  of  establishing  a  Bureau  of  Information  where 
there  can  be  an  exchange  of  wants  and  needs  between  employer  and 
employed  in  every  department  of  home  and  social  life.  2.  To  pro- 
mote among  members  of  the  Association  a  more  scientific  knowledge 
of  the  economic  value  of  various  foods  and  fuels  ;  a  more  intelli- 
gent understanding  of  correct  plumbing  and  drainage  in  our  homes,  as 
well  as  need  for  pure  water  and  good  light  in  a  sanitarily  built  house. 
3.  To  secure  skilled  labor  in  every  department  of  women's  work  in 
our  homes,  — not  only  to  demand  better  trained  cooks  and  waitresses, 
but  to  consider  the  importance  of  meeting  the  increasing  demand  for 
those  competent  to  do  plain  sewing  and  mending." 


Evils  and  Abuses.  247 

city,  fixed  rates,  and  full  preparatory  training. 
A  keen  observer  of  social  facts  has  stated  :  The 
itelligence  offices  of  New  York  alone  receive 
•om  servants  yearly  over  three  million  dollars, 
id  are  notoriously  inefficient.     This,  or  even 
ialf  of  it,   would  provide  a  great  centre  with 
raining-schools,   lodgings  for  all  who  needed 
lem,  and  a  system  by  which  fixed  rates  were 
lade  according  to   the  grade  of  efficiency  of 
the    worker.     Till    household    service    comes 
ider  the  laws  determining  value,   as  well  as 
lours  and  all  other  points  involved  in  the  wage 
>r  a  working-day,  it  will  remain  in  the  disor- 
inized   and  hopeless  state  which  at    present 
ifHes  the  housekeeper,  and  deters  self-respect- 
ig  women  and  girls  from  undertaking  it.      To 
>ring  about  some  such  organization  as  that  sug- 
gested will  most  quickly  accomplish  this;  and 
there  seems  already  hope  that  the  time  is  not 
distant  when  every  city  will  have  its  agency 
corresponding  to  the  great  Bourse  du  Travail  in 
Paris,  but  even  more  comprehensive  in  scope. 
Co-operation  within    certain    limited  degrees, 
so  that  private  home  life  will  not  be  infringed 
upon,   must  necessarily  make   part  of    such  a 
scheme,  and  has  already  been  tried  with  sue- 


248  Women   Wage- Earners. 

cess  at  various  points  in  the  West ;  but  details 
can  hardly  be  given  here.  It  is  sufficient  to 
add  that  with  such  new  basis  for  this  form  of 
occupation  the  "  servant  question  "  will  cease 
to  be  a  terror,  and  the  most  natural  occupation 
for  women  will  have  countless  recruits  from 
ranks  now  closed  against  it. 


Remedies  and  Suggestions.         249 
XII. 

REMEDIES    AND    SUGGESTIONS. 


THE  student  of  social  problems  who  faces 
the  misery  of  the  lowest  order  of  worker, 
and  the  sharp  privation  endured  by  many  even 
of  the  better  class,  is  apt,  in  the  first  fever  of 
amazement  and  indignation,  to  feel  that  some 
instant  force  must  be  brought  to  bear,  and  jus- 
tice secured,  though  the  heavens  fall.  It  is 
this  sense  of  the  struggle  of  humanity  out  of  ' 
which  have  been  born  Utopias  of  every  order, 
from  the  "  Republic  "  of  Plato  to  the  dream  in 
"  Looking  Backward. "  Not  one  of  these  can 
be  spared ;  and  that  they  exist  and  find  a  fol- 
lowing larger  and  larger,  is  the  surest  evidence 
of  the  soul  at  the  bottom  of  each.  But  for 
those  who  take  the  question  as  a  whole,  who 
see  how  slow  has  been  the  process  of  evolution, 
and  how  impossible  it  is  to  hasten  one  step  of 
the  unfolding  that  humankind  is  still  to  know, 
it  is  the  ethical  side  that  comes  uppermost, 
and  that  first  demands  consideration. 


250  Women   Wage- Earners. 

Taking  the  mass  of  the  lowest  order  of 
workers  at  all  points,  the  first  aim  of  any  effort 
intended  for  their  benefit  is  to  disentangle  the 
individual  from  the  mass.  It  is  not  charity 
that  is  to  do  this.  "  Homes  "  of  every  variety 
open  their  doors ;  but  in  all  of  them  still  lurks 
the  suspicion  of  charity;  and  even  when  this 
has  no  active  formulation  in  the  worker's  mind, 
there  is  still  the  underlying  sense  of  the  essen- 
tial injustice  of  withholding  with  one  hand  just 
pay,  and  with  the  other  proffering  a  substitute, 
in  a  charity*  which  is  to  reflect  credit  on  the 
giver  and  demand  gratitude  from  the  receiver. 
Here  and  there  this  is  recognized,  and  within 
a  short  time  has  been  emphasized  by  a  woman 
whose  name  is  associated  with  the  work  of 
organized  charities  throughout  the  country,  - 
Mrs.  Josephine  Shaw  Lowell.  It  is  doubtful 
if  there  is  any  woman  in  the  country  better 
fitted,  by  long  experience  and  almost  matchless 
common-sense,  to  speak  authoritatively.  She 
writes:  — 

"  So  far  from  assuming  that  the  well-to-do  portion  of 
society  have  discharged  all  their  obligations  to  men 
and  God  by  supporting  charitable  institutions,  I  regard 
just  this  expenditure  as  one  of  the  prime  causes  of 


Remedies  and  Suggestions.         251 


the  suffering  and  crime  that  exist  in  our  midst.  .  .  . 
I  am  inclined,  in  general,  to  look  upon  what  is  called 
charity  as  the  insult  added  to  the  injury  done  to  the 
mass  of  the  people,  by  insufficient  payment  for  work." 

Just  pay,   then,   heads  the  list  of  remedies.  \jJ^y*k 
The  difficulty  of  fixing  this  is  necessarily  enor-        ^^ 
mous,   nor  can  it  come  at  once;  since  educa-    i*\ 
tion  for  not  only  the  employer  but  the  public 
as  a  whole  is  demanded.      To  bring  this  about 
is  a  slow  process.      It  is  a  transition  period  in 
which  we   live.     Material   conditions   born  of 
phenomenal  material  progress  have  deadened 
the  sense  as  to  what  constitutes  real  progress; 
and  the  working-woman  of  to-day  contends  not 
only  with  visible  but  invisible   obstacles,   the 
nature  of  which  we  are  but  just  beginning  to 
discern.     Twenty  years  ago    M.    Paul    Leroy- 
Beaulieu  wrote  of  women  wage-earners:  — 

"  From  the  economic  point  of  view,  woman,  who 
has  next  to  no  material  force,  and  whose  arms  are 
advantageously  replaced  by  the  least  machine,  can 
have  useful  place  and  obtain  a  fair  remuneration  only 
by  the  developmenf  of  the  best  qualities  of  her  intelli- 
gence. It  is  the  inexorable  law  of  our  civilization,  — 
the  principle  and  formula  even  of  social  progress,  — • 
that  mechanical  engines  are  to  perform  every  opera- 


252  Women   Wage-Earners. 

tion  of  human  labor  which  does  not  proceed  directly 
from  the  mind.  The  hand  of  man  is  each  day 
deprived  of  a  portion  of  its  original  task ;  but  this 
general  gain  is  a  loss  for  the  particular,  and  for  the 
classes  whose  only  instrument  of  labor  is  a  pair  of 
feeble  arms." 

Take  the  fact  here  stated,  and  add  to  it  all 
that  is  implied  in  modern  competitive  condi- 
tions, and  we  see  the  true  nature  of  the  task 
that  awaits  us.  To  do  away  with  this  competi- 
tion would  not  accomplish  the  end  desired. 
To  guide  it  and  bring  it  into  intelligent  lines 
is  part  of  the  general  education.  Profit-sharing 
is  an  indispensable  portion  of  the  justice  to 
be  done;  and  this,  too,  implies  education  for 
both  sides,  and  would  go  far  toward  lessening 
burdens.  We  cannot  abolish  the  factory,  but 
hours  can  be  shortened;  the  labor  of  married 
women  with  young  children  forbidden,  as  well 
as  that  of  children  below  a  fixed  age.  In- 
dustrial education  will  prevent  the  possibility 
of  another  generation  owning  so  many  incom- 
petent and  untrained  workers,  and  technical 
schools  in  general  are  already  raising  the  stand- 
ard and  helping  to  secure  the  same  end. 

Our  present  methods  mean  waste  in  every 


Remedies  and  Suggestions.        253 


direction,  and  trusts  and  syndicates  have  already 
demonstrated  how  much  may  be  saved  to  the 
producer    if    intelligent    combination    can    be 
brought  about.      Competition  can  never  wholly 
be  set  aside,  since  within  reasonable  limits  it  {       , 
is  the  spur  of  invention  and  a  part  of  evolution 
itself.   But  if  wise  co-operation  be  once  adopted,  ^Mx^> 
the    enormous   friction   and  waste    of   present    4^ 
methods  ceases,  —  the  waste  of  human  life  as 
well  as  of  material. 

One  cheering  token  of  progress  is  the  in- 
creased discussion  as  to  methods  of  training 
and  the  necessity  of  organization  among  women 
themselves.  Ten  years  ago  only  a  voice  here 
and  there  suggested  the  need  of  either.  In 
1885,  at  the  meeting  of  the  British  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  Miss  Sarah 
Harland,  lecturer  on  Mathematics  at  Newnham 
College,  insisted  that  educated  gentlewomen 
must  have  larger  opportunity,  for  paying  work. 
The  three  qualifications  in  all  work  she  stated 
to  be:  (i)  Organization  on  a^  large  scale;  (2) 
Permanency;  (3)  Giving^-returns  that  will  ena- 
ble the  salaries  paid  to  compete  with  those  of 
teachers. 

She  regarded  dressmaking  as  the  trade  which 


254  Women   Wage-Earners. 

could  most  readily  organize  and  meet  the  other 
conditions  specified,  and  millinery  as  the  trade 
which  would  come  next.  Until  such  organiza- 
tion and  its  results  have  gradually  altered  pres- 
ent conditions,  it  will  be  true  for  all  workers, 
on  both  sides  of  the  sea,  that  not  health  alone 
but  life  itself  are  continuously  endangered  by 
the  facts  hedging  about  all  labor.  Dr.  Stevens, 
the  head  of  St.  Luke's  Insane  Asylum  in  Lon^" 
don,  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Social  Science 
Association,  said :  — 

"  It  may  be  stated  with  great  confidence  that  a 
prolific  cause  for  the  rapid  and  extensive  increase  of 
insanity  in  this  country  is  to  be  found  in  the  unceas- 
ing toil  and  anxiety  to  which  the  working-classes  are 
subjected,  this  cause  developing  the  disease  in  the 
existing  generation,  or,  what  is  quite  as  frequently  the 
case,  transmitting  to  the  offspring  idiocy,  insanity,  or 
some  imperfectly  developed  sensorium  or  nervous 
system.  The  agitated,  overworked,  and  harassed 
parent  is  not  in  a  condition  to  transmit  a  healthy 
brain  to  his  child."  1 

Accepted  as  true  in  1857,  the  words  are  not 
less  so  to-day,  when  cheap  labor  swarms,  and 
the  unemployed  number  their  millions. 

1  Transactions  of  the  National  Association  for  the  Promo- 
tion of  Social  Science,  1857,  p.  554. 


Remedies  and  Suggestions.         255 

How  best  to  combine  and  to  what  ends,  is 
the  lesson  taught  in  every  form  of  the  new 
movement  for  organization  among  women.  To 
learn  how  to  work  together  and  what  power 
lies  in  combination,  has  been  the  lesson  of  all 
clubs.  Among  men  it  has  counted  as  one  of 
:he  chief  educating  forces,  but  for  women 
every  circumstance  has  fostered  the  distrust  of 
each  other  which  belongs  to  all  undeveloped 
natures.  For  the  lowest  order  of  worker  even, 
the  "Working- Woman's  Journal,"  published 
in  London  and  the  organ  of  the  Working- 
Woman's  Protective  Union,  has  for  the  last 
year  recorded,  from  month  to  month,  the  grad- 
ual progress  of  the  idea  of  combination,  and 
the  new  hope  it  has  brought  to  all  who  have 
gone  into  trades  unions. 

With  us  there  has  been  equal  need  and 
equal  ignorance  of  all  that  such  combinations 
have  to  give.  They  mean  arbitration  rather 
than  strikes,  and  the  compelling  of  ignorant 
and  unjust  employers  to  consider  the  situation 
from  other  points  of  view  than  their  own. 
They  cormpel  also  the  same  attitude  from  men 
in  the  same  trades,  who  often  are  as  strong 
opponents  of  a  better  chance  for  their  asso- 


256  Women   Wage-  Earners. 

elates    among   women   workers    in    the    same 
branches,  as  the  most  prejudiced  employer. 

Six  points  are  urged  by  the  Working- 
Woman's  Society  of  New  York,  all  in  the  lines 
indicated  here.  Its  purposes  and  aims,  as 
given  in  the  prospectus,  are  as  follows :  — 

1.  To  encourage  women  in  the  various  trades  to 
protect  their  mutual  interests  by  organization. 

2.  To  use  all  possible  means  to  enforce  the  ex- 
isting laws  relating  to  the  protection  of  women  and 
children  in  factories  and  shops,  investigating  all  re- 
ported violations  of  such  laws ;  also  to  promote,  by 
all  suitable  means,  further  legislation  in  this  direction. 

3.  To  work  for  the  abolition  of  tenement- house 
manufacture,    especially   in   the    cigar   and    clothing 
trades. 

4.  To  investigate  all  reported  cases  of  cruel  treat- 
ment on  the  part  of  employers  and  their  managers  to 
their  women  and  children  employees,  in  withholding 
money  due,  in  imposing  fines,  or  in  docking  wages 
without  sufficient  reason. 

5.  To  found  a  labor  bureau  for  the  purpose  of 
facilitating  the  exchanging  of  labor  between  city  and 
country,  thus  relieving  the  over- crowded  occupations 
now  filled  by  women. 

6.  To  publish  a  journal  in  the  interests  of  working- 
women. 

7.  To  secure  equal  pay  for  both  sexes  for  equal 
work. 


Remedies  and  Suggestions.         257 

These  points  are  the  same  as  those  made  by 
the  few  clubs  which  have  taken  up  the  ques- 
tion of  woman's  work  and  wages;  but  thus  far 
only  this  society  has  formulated  them  defi- 
nitely. Working-girls'  clubs,  friendly  socie- 
ties, and  guilds  are  giving  to  the  worker  new 
thoughts  and  new  purposes.  The  Convention 
of  Working-Girls'  Clubs  held  in  New  York  in 
April,  1890,  showed  the  wide-reaching  influ- 
ence they  had  attained,  and  the  new  ideals 
opening  before  the  worker.  It  showed  also 
with  equal  force  the  roused  sense  of  responsi- 
bility toward  them,  and  the  eager  interest  and 
desire  for  their  betterment  in  all  ways.  Where 
they  themselves  touched  upon  their  needs, 
there  were  direct  statements  in  the  same  line 
as  many  already  quoted,  which  called  for  better 
pay,  better  conditions,  shorter  hours,  and  fewer 
fines. 

Following  the  points  given  above  came  an- 
other presentation,  the  result  of  still  further 
and  long-continued  investigation;  and  as  the 
methods  of  the  search  and  its  results  are  prac- 
ticable for  all  towns  and  cities  where  women 
are  at  work,  the  statement  prepared  for  the 
Society  is  given  in  full :  — 
17 


258  Women    Wage- Earners. 

"  We  would  call  your  attention  to  the  condition  of 
the  women  and  children  in  the  large  retail  houses  in 
this  city,  —  conditions  which  tend  to  injure  both 
physically  and  morally,  not  only  these  women  and 
children,  but  working-women  in  general.  The  general 
idea  is  that  saleswomen  are  employed  from  eight 
A.  M.  to  six  P.  M.,  but  they  are  really  engaged  in  the 
majority  of  stores  for  such  a  time  as  the  firm  requires 
them ;  which  means  in  the  Grand  Street  stores,  until 
ten,  eleven,  and  twelve  o'clock  on  Saturday  night  all 
the  year  round,  the  Saturday  half-holiday  not  being 
observed  in  summer ;  and  in  the  majority  of  houses 
that  stock  must  be  arranged  after  six  p.  M.,  the  time 
varying,  according  to  season,  from  fifteen  minutes  to 
five  hours,  and  this  without  supper  or  extra  pay ;  thus 
compelling  women  and  children  to  go  long  distances 
late  at  night,  and  rendering  them  liable  to  insult  and 
immoral  influences. 

"  Excessive  fines  are  imposed  in  many  stores,  —  fines 
varying  from  ten  to  thirty  cents  for  ten  minutes'  tardi- 
ness in  the  morning  or  lunch  hour,  and  for  all  mistakes. 
Cases  are  known  of  girls  who  have  been  fined  a  full 
week's  pay  at  the  end  of  the  week.  In  one  store  the 
fines  amounted  to  $3,000  in  a  year,  and  the  sum  was 
divided  between  the  superintendent  and  timekeeper ; 
and  the  superintendent  was  heard  to  charge  the  time- 
keeper with  not  being  strict  enough  in  his  duties. 

"  Bad  sanitary  conditions,  bad  ventilation  and  toilet 
arrangements  are  common,  and  the  sanitary  laws  are 


in 

,„ 


Remedies  and  Suggestions.         259 

not  observed.  Children  under  age  are  employed  at 
work  far  beyond  their  strength,  often  far  into  the 
night.  The  average  wages  do  not  exceed  $4.50  ;  and 
in  one  of  our  largest  stores  the  average  wage  is  $2.40, 
another  $2.90.  The  tendency  in  all  stores  is  to 
secure  the  cheapest  help ;  for  this  reason  school-girls 
just  graduated  are  much  sought  for,  as  they,  having 
homes,  can  afford  to  work  for  less.  But  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  saleswomen  either  pay  board  or  help 
support  a  family;  and  how  can  this  be  done  on  $4.50 
per  week  ?  The  cheapest  board  in  dark  stuffy  attics 
or  tenement  houses  is  $3.00,  fuel  and  washing  extra; 
and  no  woman  can  pay  doctor's  bills  and  maintain  a 
respectable  appearance  on  what  remains.  How  then 
does  she  live  ?  There  are  two  ways  of  answering : 
The  story  of  a  woman  who  worked  in  one  of  our  large 
houses  is  one  way.  This  woman  earned  $3.00  per 
week ;  she  paid  $1.50  for  her  room  ;  her  breakfast  con- 
sisted of  a  cup  of  coffee  ;  she  had  no  lunch  ;  she  had 
but  one  meal  a  day.  Many  saleswomen  must  be  in 
this  condition.  The  other  answer  is  that  given  by 
more  than  one  employer,  who  when  saleswomen  com- 
plain of  the  low  wages  offered,  reply :  « Oh,  well,  get 
yourself  a  gentleman  friend ;  most  of  our  girls  have 
them?  Not  long  since  a  member  of  our  society  re- 
ceived a  letter  from  a  salesman  in  a  certain  house 
which  read  thus  :  '  In  the  name  of  God  cannot  some- 
thing be  done  for  the  saleswomen  ?  I  am  a  salesman 
in ,  and  I  have  walked  in  disguise  at  night  upon 


260  Women   Wage- Earners. 

certain  streets  to  be  accosted  by  girls  in  my  own 
department,  —  girls  whose  salaries  are  so  low  it  was 
impossible  to  live  upon  them."  A  painter  told  us  that 
in  working  in  the  houses  of  ill-repute  in  the  vicinity 
of  Twenty- third  Street,  he  was  astonished  at  the  num- 
ber of  women  whom  he  recognized  as  saleswomen  in 
different  stores  who  frequented  these  houses.  But 
what  are  they  to  do  ?  They  are  women  without  trade 
or  profession,  thrown  upon  their  own  resources,  obliged 
to  make  a  good  appearance,  and  unable  to  do  so  and 
yet  have  sufficient  food.  We  must  all  concede  that 
virtue  and  honor  in  woman  are  natural,  and  very  few 
women  resort  to  such  ways  unless  forced  to  do  so ; 
certainly  not,  when  they  yet  have  sufficient  pride  to 
wish  to  maintain  the  appearance  of  respectability.  If 
men's  wages  fall  below  a  certain  limit,  they  become 
tramps,  thieves,  and  robbers  ;  but  woman's  wages  have 
no  limit,  since  she  can  always  work  for  less  than  she 
can  subsist  upon,  the  paths  of  shame  being  open  to 
her.  And  the  beggarly  pittance  for  which  one  class 
of  women  work  becomes  the  standard  of  wages  for 
all  women,  and  throws  them  out  upon  the  world,  there 
to  find  a  sure  market.  But  we  do  not  wish  to  in- 
sinuate, in  stating  these  facts,  that  the  majority  of 
saleswomen  resort  to  evil  ways  ;  on  the  contrary,  they 
are  the  exception  who  do  so.  We  know  the  majority 
of  women  prefer  to  suffer,  and  do  suffer,  rather  than 
do  so.  But  can  we  allow  a  few  to  fall?  We  of  the 
Working -Women's  Society  believe  that  we  are  so  far 


Remedies  and  Suggestions.         261 

our  sisters'  keepers  that  we  are  responsible  for  their 
position. 

"  We  believe  that  the  payment  and  condition  of 
those  who  work  (through  their  employers)  for  us  is 
our  affair,  and  we  have  no  right  to  remain  in  an  igno- 
rance that  involves  or  may  involve  their  misery.  We 
believe  we  have  no  right,  having  obtained  such  knowl- 
edge, to  refrain  from  seeking  to  remedy  it,  and  urging 
all  to  assist  us  to  do  so. 

"  In  this  belief  we  call  your  attention  to  the  pro- 
posed '  Consumers'  League,'  the  members  of  which 
shall  pledge  themselves  to  deal  at  those  stores  where 
just  conditions  exist. 

"  We  have  gotten  together  a  number  of  facts  which 
we  shall  be  glad  to  present  to  you  with  our  estimate 
of  a  fair  house,  or  one  which  under  existing  conditions 
is  eligible  to  admission  to  a  white  list." 

Preceding  this  appeal  and  the  public  meet- 
ings which  ensued,  came,  in  1890,  the  formation 
of  the  Consumers'  League,  Mrs.  Josephine 
Shaw  Lowell  its  President.  Quiet  and  incon- 
spicuous as  its  work  has  been,  the  best  retail 
mercantile  houses  in  New  York  have  accepted 
its  prospectus  as  just,  and  stand  now  upon 
the  "White  List,"  which  numbers  all  mer- 
chants who  seek  to  deal  justly  and  fairly  with 
their  employees.  "What  constitutes  a  Fair 


262  Women   Wage-Earners. 

House "  expresses  all  the  needs  and  formu- 
lates the  most  vital  demands  of  the  working- 
woman  •  and  the  results  already  accomplished 
speak  for  themselves.  As  a  guide  to  other 
workers,  it  is  given  here  in  full :  — 

STANDARD    OF    A    FAIR   HOUSE. 
Wages. 

A  fair  house  is  one  in  which  equal  pay  is  given  for 
work  of  equal  value,  irrespective  of  sex.  In  the  de- 
partments where  women  only  are  employed,  in  which 
the  minimum  wages  are  six  dollars  per  week  for 
experienced  adult  workers,  and  fall  in  few  instances 
below  eight  dollars. 

In  which  wages  are  paid  by  the  week. 

In  which  fines,  if  imposed,  are  paid  into  a  fund  for 
the  benefit  of  the  employees. 

In  which  the  minimum  wages  of  cash-girls  are  two 
dollars  per  week,  with  the  same  conditions  regarding 
weekly  payments  and  fines. 

Hours. 

A  fair  house  is  one  in  which  the  hours  from  eight 
A.  M.  to  six  P.  M.  (with  three  quarters  of  an  hour  for 
lunch)  constitute  the  working-day,  and  a  general  half- 
holiday  is  given  on  one  day  of  each  week  during  at 
least  two  summer  months. 


Remedies  and  Suggestions.        263 

In  which  a  vacation  of  not  less  than  one  week  is 
given  with  pay  during  the  summer  season. 
In  which  all  over-time  is  compensated  for. 


Physical  Conditions. 

A  fair  house  is  one  in  which  work,  lunch,  and  re- 
tiring rooms  are  apart  from  each  other,  and  conform 
in  all  respects  to  the  present  sanitary  laws. 

In  which  the  present  law  regarding  the  providing 
of  seats  for  saleswomen  is  observed,  and  the  use  of 
seats  permitted. 

Other   Conditions. 

A  fair  house  is  one  in  which  humane  and  consider- 
ate behavior  toward  employees  is  the  rule. 

In  which  fidelity  and  length  of  service  meet  with 
the  consideration  which  is  their  due. 

In  which  no  children  under  fourteen  years  of  age 
are  employed. 

Membership. 

The  condition  of  membership  shall  be  the  approval 
by  signature  of  the  object  of  the  Consumers'  League; 
and  all  persons  shall  be  eligible  for  membership  ex- 
cepting such  as  are  engaged  in  the  retail  business  in 
this  city,  either  as  employer  or  employee. 

The  members  shall  not  be  bound  never  to  buy  at 
other  shops. 

The  names  of  the  members  of  the  Consumers' 
League  shall  not  be  made  public. 


264  Women    Wage-Earners. 

Later,  one  of  the  ablest  workers  in  this  field, 
Mrs.  Florence  Kelley,  formulated  a  basis  for 
every  society  of  working-women,  as  follows  : 

I.   To  bring    out  of  the  chaos  of  competition  the 

order  of  co-operation. 
II.    To  organize  all  wages -earning  women. 

III.  To    disseminate  the   literature  of  labor  and  co- 

operation. 

IV.  To  institute  a  label  which  shall  enable  the  pur- 

chaser   to    discriminate    in    favor    of    goods 
produced  under  healthful  conditions. 
V.    i .    Abolition  of  child  labor  to  the  age  of  sixteen. 

2.  Compulsory  education  to  the  age  of  sixteen. 

3.  Prohibition  of  employment  of  minors  more 

than  eight  hours  daily. 

4.  Prohibition  of  employment  of  minors  at  dan- 

gerous occupations. 

5.  Appointment  of  women  inspectors,  one  for 

every  thousand  women  and  children  em- 
ployed. 

6.  Healthful  conditions  of  work  for  women  and 

children. 

The  foregoing  to  be  obtained  by  legislation. 
The  following  to  be  obtained  by  organization :  — 

1.  Equal  pay  for  equal  work  with  men. 

2.  A  minimal  rate  which  will  enable  the  least 

paid  to  live  upon  her  earnings. 


Remedies  and  Suggestions.        265 

A  little  later,  the  statement  which  follows, 
became  necessary:  — 


: 


"  Certain  abuses  exist  in  the  dry-goods  houses  affect- 
ing the  well-being  of  the  saleswomen  and  children 
employed,  which  we  believe  can  be  remedied.  In 
ct,  in  different  stores  some  of  them  have  been  reme- 
died, which  gives  us  courage  to  bring  these  matters  to 
your  attention. 

"  We  find  the  hours  are  often  excessive,  and  that 
these  women  and  children  are  not  paid  for  over-time. 

"  We  find  that  in  many  houses  the  saleswomen  work 
under  unwholesome  conditions ;  these  comprise  bad 
ventilation,  unsanitary  toilet  arrangements,  and  an  in- 
difference to  considerations  of  decency. 

"  The  wages,  which  are  low,  we  find  are  often  re- 
duced by  excessive  fines ;  that  employers  place  a 
value  on  time  lost  that  they  fail  to  give  for  service 
rendered. 

"  We  find  that  numbers  of  children  under  age  are 
employed  for  excessive  hours,  and  at  work  far  beyond 
their  strength. 

"  We  find  that  long  and  faithful  service  does  not 
meet  with  the  consideration  that  is  its  due ;  on  the 
contrary,  having  served  a  certain  number  of  years  is  a 
reason  for  dimissal. 

"  Because  of  the  foregoing  low  wages,  the  discour- 
aging result  of  excessive  fines,  long  hours,  and  un- 
wholesome sanitary  conditions,  not  only  the  physical 


266  Women   Wage- Earners. 

system  is  injured,  but  —  the  result  we  most  deplore,  and 
of  which  we  have  incontrovertible  proof  —  the  ten- 
dency is  to  injure  the  moral  well -being. 

"  We  believe  that  to  call  attention  to  these  evils  is 
to  go  far  toward  remedying  them,  and  that  the  power 
to  do  this  lies  largely  in  the  hands  of  the  purchasing 
classes. 

"  We  think  that  '  the  payment  and  condition  of 
those  who  work  —  through  their  employers  —  for  us, 
is  our  affair,  and  that  we  have  no  right  to  remain  in 
ignorance  of  the  conditions  that  involve  or  may  in- 
volve their  misery.'  " 

Two  points  still  remain  untouched,  both  of 
them  vital  elements  in  the  just  working  of  the 
social  scheme,  — profit-sharing,  and  a  board  of 
conciliation  and  arbitration  for  the  adjust- 
ment of  ail  difficulties  between  employer  and 
employed. 

For  every  detail  bearing  upon  the  education 
bound  up  in  even  the  attempt  at  profit-sharing, 
as  well  as  for  the  actual  and  successful  results 
in  this  direction,  the  reader  is  referred  to  an 
excellent  little  monograph  on  the  subject, 
"Sharing  the  Profits,"  by  Miss  Mary  Whiton 
Calkins,  A.M.,  and  for  very  full  and  elaborate 
treatment  of  the  question,  to  the  invaluable 
volume  by  N.  P.  Oilman,  "Profit- Sharing  be- 


Remedies  and  Suggestions.         267 

tween  Employer  and  Employed."  In  all  cases 
where  the  experiment  has  had  fair  trial,  it  has 
resulted  in  a  marked  increase  of  interest  in  the 
work  itself;  an  actual  lessening  of  the  cost  of 
production,  and  of  general  wear  and  tear,  be- 
cause of  this  increased  interest ;  and  a  far  more 
friendly  feeling  between  employer  and  em- 
ployed. It  is  certain  that  justice  requires 
immediate  attention  to  every  phase  of  this 
question,  and  that  its  adoption  is  the  first  step 
in  the  right  direction. 

For  the  second  point,  we  have  as  yet  in 
this  country  only  an  occasional  attempt  at 
arbitration,  yet  its  need  becomes  more  and 
more  apparent  with  every  fresh  difficulty  in 
the  field  of  labor.  A  little  volume  by  Mrs. 
Josephine  Shaw  Lowell,  at  the  time  of  writ- 
ing,1 going  through  the  press,  who  has  given 
much  time  to  a  study  of  the  question,  contains 
the  latest  results  of  English  and  French  legis- 
lation, and  of  special  action  in  this  direction. 
Any  history  of  the  movement  as  a  whole, 
hardly  has  place  in  these  pages.  It  is  suffi- 
cient to  say  that  the  system  had  practically  no 
consideration  till  1850,  when  the  first  Board  of 

1  July,  1893. 


268  Women   Wage-Earners. 

Arbitration  was  formed  in  England,  owing  its 
existence  to  the  determined  efforts  of  two  men. 
Mr.  Rupert  Kettle,  lawyer  and  judge,  ap- 
proached it  from  the  legal  side;  Mr.  Murdella, 
a  manufacturer,  and  himself  sprung  from  the 
working-classes,  went  straight  "to  the  practical 
and  moral  end  implied  by  the  word  '  concilia- 
tion,' .  .  .  both  routes  of  this  noble  emulation 
converging,  each  affording  strength  to  the 
common  conclusions." 

The  Nottingham  lace  manufacture,  in  which 
numbers  of  women  and  children  as  well  as 
men  are  employed,  has,  for  thirty  years  and 
more,  been  governed  by  a  Board  of  Arbitra- 
tion, the  result  being  an  end  of  strikes  and 
all  difficulties  of  like  nature.  If  no  more  were 
accomplished  than  the  bringing  about  a  better 
understanding  between  employer  and  employed, 
it  would  mean  much,  since  mutual  suspicion 
and  distrust  rule  for  both.  Organization  among 
women,  and  the  sense  of  mutual  dependence 
given  by  it,  lead  naturally  to  the  formation  of  a 
board  able  to  judge  dispassionately  and  disinter- 
estedly of  the  questions  naturally  arising,  many 
of  which,  however,  are  at  once  dissipated  on  the 
adoption  of  the  system  of  profit-sharing. 


Remedies  and  Suggestions.         269 

The  practical  steps  already  taken  sum  up  in 
the  forms  just  given;  and  there  remains  only 
the  question  constantly  asked  as  to  the  final 
effect  upon  wages  of  woman's  entrance  into 
public  life,  this  question  usually  shaping  itself 
under  three  heads : — 

1.  Why  are  they  in  the  field  ? 

2.  How  does  their  work  compare  in  efficiency 
with  that  of  men  ? 

3.  What  is  likely  to  be  the  final  effect  on 
wage  of  their  entrance  into  active  life? 

The  first  phase  has  already  had  full  answer 
in  the  general  survey  of  trades  and  their  rise 
and  growth.  As  to  the  second,  personal  obser- 
vation, long  continued  and  minute,  added  to 
the  very  full  knowledge  to  be  obtained  from 
the  reports  of  the  various  State  bureaus  of 
labor,  goes  to  prove  beyond  question  that, 
given  the  same  grade  of  intelligence,  the  work 
of  women  is  fully  equal  to  that  of  men.  De- 
scending in  the  scale  to  untrained  labor  in  all 
its  forms,  the  woman  is  at  times  of  less  value 
than  the  man.  The  Knights  of  Labor,  how- 
ever, settled  definitely  that  this  was  seldom 
the  case,  and  in  their  constitution  demanded 
equal  pay  for  equal  work.  For  both  sexes 


270  Women   Wage- Earners. 

machinery  is  more  and  more  superseding  the 
labor  of  each;  and  as  women  and  children  are 
quite  capable  of  running  much  of  it,  this  fact, 
of  course,  brings  the  general  wage  to  their 
standard.  This,  added  to  various  physiological 
and  social  reasons,  makes  woman  often  a  less 
dependable  worker  than  man,  and  tends  to  keep 
wages  at  a  minimum. 

As  to  the  final  effect  on  wages,  I  regard  the 
whole  aspect  of  things  as  purely  transitional, 
and  must  answer  from  personal  conviction  in 
the  matter. 

The  entire  movement  appears  to  me  a  part 
of  the  natural  evolution  from  barbaric  law  and 
restriction,  and  a  necessary  demonstration  of 
the  spiritual  equality  of  the  sexes.  I  regard  it 
also  as  the  nurse  and  developer  of  many  small 
virtues  in  which  women  are  especially  deficient, 
—  punctuality,  unvarying  quality  of  work,  a 
sense  of  business  honor  and  of  personal  fidel- 
ity, each  to  all  and  all  to  each.  But  I  cannot 
feel  that  it  is  a  permanent  state,  or  that  when 
the  essential  has  been  accomplished  women 
will  have  the  same  need  or  the  same  desire 
that  now  rules.  I  believe  that  wages  must 
necessarily  fluctuate  and  tend  to  the  mere  point 


Remedies  and  Suggestions.         271 

of  subsistence  when  either  child  labor  or  the 
lowest  grade  of  woman's  labor  exists,  and  that 
the  only  way  out  of  the  complications  we_face 
is  in  an  alteration  of  ideals.  Statistics  and 
general  reports  show  the  demoralization  of 
family  life  where  such  work  goes  on,  and  the 
fact  that  in  the  long  run  the  workman  loses 
rather  than  gains  where  his  family  share  his 
labor. 

The  lowering  of  wage  may  be  considered, 
then,  as  in  one  sense  remedial,  and  the  present 
state  of  things  as  in  part  the  mere  action  of 
inevitable  and  inescapable  law.  But  it  is  im- 
possible to  make  this  plain  in  present  limits. 
Having  passed  through  every  stage  of  feeling, 
—  sick  pity,  burning  indignation,  and  tempest- 
uous desire  for  instant  action,  —  I  have  come 
at  last  to  regard  all  as  our  education  in  justice 
and  a  demand  for  training  in  such  wise  as  shall 
render  unskilled  labor  more  and  more  impos- 
sible. So  long  as  it  exists,  however,  I  see  no 
outlook  but  the  fluctuating  and  uncertain  wage, 
the  natural  result  of  the  existence  of  the  low- 
est order  of  workers. 

For  them  as  for  us  it  is  the  development  of 
the  individual  from  the  mass  that  is  the  chief 


272  Women   Wage- Earners. 

end  of  any  real  civilization.      No   Utopias  of 
any  past  or  present  can  bring  this  at  once. 

"  Each  man  to  himself  and  each  woman  to  herself, 
such  is  the  word  of  the  past  and  the  present,  and  the 
true  word  of  immortality." 

"  No  one  can  acquire  for  another,  not  one  ; 
No  one  can  grow  for  another,  not  one." 

Despair  might  easily  be  the  outcome  of  a 
first  glance  at  these  conditions ;  but  the  stir  at 
all  points  is  assurance  of  a  better  day  to  come. 

Legislation  can  do  much.  The  appointment 
of  women  inspectors,  lately  brought  about  for 
New  York,  is  imperative  at  all  points,  since 
women  will  tell  women  the  evils  they  would 
never  mention  to  men.  Law  can  also  demand 
decent  sanitary  conditions,  and  affix  a  penalty 
for  every  violation.  Beyond  this,  and  the 
awakening  of  the  public  conscience  as  to  what 
is  owed  the  honest  worker,  little  can  be  said. 
Enlightenment,  a  better  chance  at  every  point 
for  the,struggling  mass,  —  that  is  the  work  for 
each  and  all  of  them,  and  for  those  who  would 
aid  the  constant  demand,  and  labor  for  justice 
in  its  largest  sense  and  its  most  rigorous 
application.  With  justice  on  both  sides,  abuses 
die  of  pure  inanition.  The  tenement-house 


Remedies  and  Suggestions.         273 

system,  every  evil  that  hedges  about  special 
trades,  every  wrong  born  of  cupidity  and  igno- 
rance, and  all  base  features  of  trade  at  its 
worst,  end  once  for  all,  and  we  see  the  end 
and  aim  of  the  social  life,  whether  for  em- 
ployer or  employed. 

A  generation  ago  Mazzini  wrote :  — 

"  The  human  soul,  not  the  body,  should  be  the 
starting-point  of  all  our  efforts,  since  the  body  without 
the  soul  is  only  a  carcass,  whilst  the  soul,  wherever  it 
\s  found  free  and  holy,  is  sure  to  mould  for  itself  such 
a  body  as  its  wants  and  vocation  require." 

It  is  this  soul-moulding  that  is  given  chiefly 
into  the  hands  of  women.  It  is  through  them 
that  the  higher  ideal  of  life,  its  purpose  and 
its  demands,  is  to  be  made  known.  No  pres- 
ent scheme  of  general  philanthropy  can  touch 
this  need.  It  is  growth  in  the  human  soul 
itself  that  will  mean  justice  from  the  em- 
ployer  to  each  and  every  wor^erTand  from  the 
worker  in  equaring^^  and 

this  justice  can  be  implanted  in  the  child  as 
certainly  as  many  another  virtue,  into  the 
knowledge  and  love  of  which  we  grow  but 

slowly. 

18 


274  Women    Wage- Earners. 

Never  has  deeper  interest  followed  every 
movement  for  the  understanding  and  bettering 
of  conditions.  Never  was  there  stronger  ground 
for  hope  that,  in  spite  of  the  worst  abuses  ex- 
isting, man's  will  is  to  join  hands  at  last  with 
natural  evolution  toward  higher  forms.  Faith 
and  hope  alike  find  their  assurance  in  the  in- 
creasing sense  of  the  solidarity  of  human  kind, 
and  the  spirit  of  brotherhood  more  and  more 
discernible,  which,  as  it  grows,  must  end  all 
oppression,  conscious  and  unconscious.  The 
old  days  of  darkness  are  dying.  Man  knows 
at  last  that  — 

"  Laying  hands  on  another, 

To  coin  his  labor  and  sweat, 

He  goes  in  pawn  to  his  victim 

For  eternal  years  in  debt ;  " 

and  in  knowing  it,  the  first  step  is  taken  in 
the  new  life  wherein  all  are  brothers ;  and  the 
law  of  love,  slowly  as  it  may  work,  ends  for- 
ever the  long  conflict  between  employer  and 
employed. 


APPENDIX. 


FACTORY    INSPECTION    LAW. 


PASSED  MAY  18,  1886;  AMENDED  MAY  25,  1887;  AMENDED  JUNE 
15,  1889;  AMENDED  MAY  21,  1890;  AMENDED  MAY  18,  1892. 

CHAPTER  409,  LAWS  OF  1886  (AS  AMENDED  BY 
CHAPTER  673,  LAWS  OF  1892). 

AN  ACT  to  Regulate  the  Employment  of  Women  and  Children  in 
Manufacturing  Establishments,  and  to  Provide  for  the  Appoint- 
ment of  Inspectors  to  Enforce  the  Same. 


The  People  of  the  State  of  New  York,  represented  in 
Senate  and  Assembly,  do  enact  as  follows : 
SECTION  i.  No  person  under  eighteen  years  of  age, 
and  no  woman  under  twenty-one  years  or  age,  em- 
ployed in  any  manufacturing  establishment,  shall  be 
required,  permitted,  or  suffered  to  work  therein  more 
than  sixty  hours  in  any  one  week,  or  more  than  ten 
hours  in  any  one  day,  unless  for  the  purpose  of  mak- 
ing a  shorter  work-day  on  the  last  day  of  the  week, 
nor  more  hours  in  any  one  week  than  will  make  an 
average  of  ten  hours  per  day  for  the  whole  number  of 
days  in  which  such  person  or  such  woman  shall  so 
work  during  such  week  ;  and  in  no  case  shall  any  person 


276  Appendix. 

under  eighteen  years  of  age,  or  any  woman  under 
twenty- one  years  of  age,  work  in  any  such  establish- 
ment after  nine  o'clock  in  the  evening  or  before  six 
o'clock  in  the  morning  of  any  day.  Every  person, 
firm,  corporation,  or  company  employing  any  person 
under  eighteen  years  of  age,  or  any  woman  under 
twenty-one  years  of  age,  in  any  manufacturing  estab- 
lishment, shall  post  and  keep  posted  in  a  conspicuous 
place  in  every  room  where  such  help  is  employed,  a 
printed  notice  stating  the  number  of  hours  of  labor 
per  day  required  of  such  persons  for  each  day  of  the 
week,  and  the  number  of  hours  of  labor  exacted  or 
permitted  to  be  performed  by  such  persons  shall  not 
exceed  the  number  of  hours  of  labor  so  posted  as 
being  required.  The  time  of  beginning  and  ending 
the  day's  labor  shall  be  the  time  stated  in  such  notice ; 
provided  that  such  women  under  twenty-one  and 
persons  under  eighteen  years  of  age  may  begin  after 
the  time  set  for  beginning,  and  stop  before  the  time 
set  in  such  notice  for  the  stopping  of  the  day's  labor; 
but  they  shall  not  be  permitted  or  required  to  perform 
any  labor  before  the  time  stated  on  the  notices  as  the 
time  for  beginning  the  day's  labor,  nor  after  the  time 
stated  upon  the  notices  as  the  hour  for  ending  the 
day's  labor.  The  terms  of  the  notice  stating  the  hours 
of  labor  required  shall  not  be  changed  after  the  begin- 
ning of  labor  on  the  first  day  of  the  week  without  the 
consent  of  the  Factory  Inspector,  Assistant  Factory 
Inspector,  or  a  Deputy  Factory  Inspector.  When,  in 


Appendix.     (  277 


order  to  make  a  shorter  work-day  or*  the  last  day  of 
the  week,  women  under  twenty-one  and  youths  under 
eighteen  years  of  age  are  to  be  required,  permitted,  or 
suffered  to  work  more  than  ten  hours  in  any  one  day, 
in  a  manufacturing  establishment,  it  shall  be  the  duty 
of  the  proprietor,  agent,  foreman,  superintendent,  or 
other  person  employing  such  persons,  to  notify  the 
Factory  Inspector,  Assistant  Factory  Inspector,  or  a 
Deputy  Factory  Inspector,  in  charge  of  the  district, 
in  writing,  of  such  intention,  stating  the  number  of 
hours  of  labor  per  day  which  it  is  proposed  to  permit 
or  require,  and  the  date  upon  which  the  necessity  for 
such  lengthened  day's  labor  shall  cease,  and  also  again 
forward  such  notification  when  it  shall  actually  have 
ceased.  A  record  of  the  amount  of  over-time  so 
worked,  and  of  the  days  upon  which  it  was  performed, 
with  the  names  of  the  employees  who  were  thus  re- 
quired or  permitted  to  work  more  than  ten  hours  in 
any  one  day,  shall  be  kept  in  the  office  of  the  manu- 
facturing establishment,  and  produced  upon  the 
demand  of  any  officer  appointed  to  enforce  the 
provisions  of  this  act. 

§  2.  No  child  under  fourteen  years  of  age  shall  be 
employed  in  any  manufacturing  establishment  within 
this  State.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  every  person 
employing  children  to  keep  a  register,  in  which  shall 
be  recorded  the  name,  birthplace,  age  and  place  of 
residence  of  every  person  employed  by  him  under  the 
age  of  sixteen  years ;  and  it  shall  be  unlawful  for  any 


278  Appendix. 

proprietor,  agent,  foreman,  or  other  person  in  or  con- 
nected with  a  manufacturing  establishment  to  hire  or 
employ  any  child  under  the  age  of  sixteen  years  to 
work  therein  without  there  is  first  provided  and  placed 
on  file  in  the  ofhce  an  affidavit  made  by  the  parent  or 
guardian,  stating  the  age,  date,  and  place  of  birth  of 
said  child ;  if  said  child  have  no  parent  or  guardian, 
then  such  affidavit  shall  be  made  by  the  child,  which 
affidavit  shall  be  kept  on  file  by  the  employer,  and 
which  said  register  and  affidavit  shall  be  produced  for 
inspection  on  demand  made  by  the  Inspector,  Assist- 
ant Inspector,  or  any  of  the  deputies  appointed  under 
this  act.  There  shall  be  posted  conspicuously  in  every 
room  where  children  under  sixteen  years  of  age  are 
employed,  a  list  of  their  names  with  their  ages  respec- 
tively. No  child  under  the  age  of  sixteen  years  shall 
be  employed  in  any  manufacturing  establishment  who 
cannot  read  and  write  simple  sentences  in  the  English 
language,  except  during  the  vacation  of  the  public 
schools  in  the  city  or  town  where  such  minor  lives. 
The  Factory  Inspector,  Assistant  Inspector,  and  Deputy 
Inspectors  shall  have  power  to  demand  a  certificate  of 
physical  fitness  from  some  regular  physician,  in  the 
case  of  children  who  may  seem  physically  unable  to 
perform  the  labor  at  which  they  may  be  employed, 
and  shall  have  power  to  prohibit  the  employment  of 
any  minor  that  cannot  obtain  such  a  certificate. 

§  3.    No  person,  firm,  or  corporation  shall  employ 
or  permit  any  child  under  the  age  of  fifteen  years  to 


Appendix.  279 

have  the  care,  custody,  management  of,  or  to  operate 
any  elevator,  or  shall  employ  or  permit  any  person 
under  the  age  of  eighteen  years  to  have  the  care,  cus- 
tody, management,  or  operation  of  any  elevator  run- 
ning at  a  speed  of  over  two  hundred  feet  a  minute. 

§  4.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  owner,  agent,  or 
lessee  of  any  manufacturing  establishment  where  there 
is  any  elevator,  hoisting- shaft,  or  well-hole,  to  cause 
the  same  to  be  properly  and  substantially  inclosed  or 
secured,  if  in  the  opinion  of  the  Factory  Inspector,  or 
of  the  Assistant  Factory  Inspector,  or  a  Deputy  Fac- 
tory Inspector,  unless  disapproved  by  the  Factory 
Inspector,  it  is  necessary  to  protect  the  lives  or  limbs 
of  those  employed  in  such  establishment.  It  shall  also 
be  the  duty  of  the  owner,  agent,  or  lessee  of  each  of 
such  establishments  to  provide  or  cause  to  be  provided, 
if,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Inspector,  the  safety  of  persons 
in  or  about  the  premises  should  require  it,  such  proper 
trap  or  automatic  doors,  so  fastened  in  or  at  all  eleva- 
tor ways  as  to  form  a  substantial  surface  when  closed, 
and  so  constructed  as  to  open  and  close  by  action  of 
the  elevator  in  its  passage,  either  ascending  or  de- 
scending, but  the  requirements  of  this  section  shall 
not  apply  to  passenger  elevators  that  are  closed  on 
all  sides.  The  Factory  Inspector,  Assistant  Factory 
Inspector,  and  Deputy  Factory  Inspectors  may  inspect 
the  cables,  gearing,  or  other  apparatus  of  elevators  in 
manufacturing  establishments,  and  require  that  the 
same  be  kept  in  a  safe  condition. 


280  Appendix. 

§  5.  Proper  and  substantial  hand-rails  shall  be  pro- 
vided on  all  stairways  in  manufacturing  establishments, 
and  where,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Factory  Inspector,  or 
of  the  Assistant  Factory  Inspector,  or  Deputy  Factory 
Inspector,  unless  disapproved  by  the  Factory  Inspector, 
it  is  necessary,  the  steps  of  said  stairs  in  all  such  es- 
tablishments shall  be  substantially  covered  with  rubber, 
securely  fastened  thereon,  for  the  better  safety  of  per- 
sons employed  in  said  establishments.  The  stairs  shall 
be  properly  screened  at  the  sides  and  bottom,  and  all 
doors  leading  in  or  to  such  factory  shall  be  so  con- 
structed as  to  open  outwardly  where  practicable,  and 
shall  be  neither  locked,  bolted,  nor  fastened  during 
working-hours. 

§  6.  If,  in  the  opinion  of  the  Factory  Inspector,  or 
of  the  Assistant  Factory  Inspector,  or  of  a  Deputy 
Factory  Inspector,  it  is  necessary  to  insure  the  safety 
of  the  persons  employed  in  any  manufacturing  estab- 
lishment, three  or  more  stories  in  height,  one  or  more 
fire-escapes,  as  may  be  deemed  by  the  Factory  In- 
spector as  necessary  and  sufficient  therefor,  shall  be 
provided  on  the  outside  of  such  establishment,  con- 
necting with  each  floor  above  the  first,  well  fastened 
and  secured  and  of  sufficient  strength,  each  of  which 
fire-escapes  shall  have  landings  or  balconies,  not  less 
than  six  feet  in  length  and  three  feet  in  width,  guarded 
by  iron  railings  not  less  than  three  feet  in  height,  and 
embracing  at  least  two  windows  at  each  story  and  con- 
necting with  the  interior  by  easily  accessible  and  un- 


Appendix.  281 

obstructed  openings,  and  the  balconies  or  landings 
shall  be  connected  by  iron  stairs,  not  less  than 
eighteen  inches  wide,  the  steps  not  to  be  less  than 
six  inches  tread,  placed  at  a  proper  slant,  and  pro- 
tected by  a  well-secured  hand-rail  on  both  sides  with 
a  twelve-inch-wide  drop-ladder  from  the  lower  plat- 
form reaching  to  the  ground.  Any  other  plan  or 
style  of  fire-escape  shall  be  sufficient,  if  approved  by 
the  Factory  Inspector ;  but  if  not  so  approved,  the 
Factory  Inspector  may  notify  the  owner,  proprietor, 
or  lessee  of  such  establishment  or  of  the  building  in 
which  such  establishment  is  conducted,  or  the  agent 
or  superintendent  or  either  of  them,  in  writing,  that 
any  such  other  plan  or  style  of  fire-escape  is  not  suf- 
ficient, and  may,  by  an  order  in  writing,  served  in  like 
manner,  require  one  or  more  fire-escapes,  as  he  shall 
deem  necessary  and  sufficient,  to  be  provided  for  such 
establishment,  at  such  locations  and  of  such  plan  and 
style  as  shall  be  specified  in  such  written  order. 
Within  twenty  days  after  the  service  of  such  order, 
the  number  of  fire-escapes  required  in  such  order  for 
such  establishment  shall  be  provided  therefor,  each  of 
which  shall  be  either  of  the  plan  and  style  and  in 
accordance  with  the  specifications  in  said  order 
required,  or  of  the  plan  and  style  in  this  section 
above  described  and  declared  to  be  sufficient.  The 
windows  or  doors  to  each  fire-escape  shall  be  of  suf- 
ficient size,  and  be  located  as  far  as  possible  consistent 
with  accessibility,  from  the  stairways  and  elevator 


282  Appendix. 

hatchways  or  openings,  and  the  ladder  thereof  shall 
extend  to  the  roof.  Stationary  stairs  or  ladders  shall 
be  provided  on  the  inside  of  such  establishment  from 
the  upper  story  to  the  roof,  as  a  means  of  escape  in 
case  of  fire. 

§  7.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  owner,  agent, 
superintendent,  or  other  person  having  charge  of  such 
manufacturing  establishment,  or  of  any  floor  or  part 
thereof,  to  report  in  writing  to  the  Factory  Inspector 
all  accidents  or  injury  done  to  any  person  in  such 
factory,  within  forty- eight  hours  of  the  time  of  the 
accident,  stating  as  fully  as  possible  the  extent  and 
cause  of  such  injury,  and  the  place  where  the  injured 
person  has  been  sent,  with  such  other  information 
relative  thereto  as  may  be  required  by  the  Factory 
Inspector.  The  Factory  Inspector  or  Assistant  Fac- 
tory Inspector  and  Deputy  Factory  Inspectors  under 
the  supervision  of  the  Factory  Inspector,  are  hereby 
authorized  and  empowered  to  fully  investigate  the 
causes  of  such  accidents,  and  to  require  such  pre- 
cautions to  be  taken  as  will  in  their  judgment  prevent 
the  recurrence  of  similar  accidents. 

§  8.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  owner  of  any  man- 
ufacturing establishment,  or  his  agents,  superintendent, 
or  other  person  in  charge  of  the  same,  to  furnish  and 
supply,  or  cause  to  be  furnished  and  supplied  therein, 
in  the  discretion  of  the  Factory  Inspector,  or  of  the 
Assistant  Factory  Inspector,  or  of  a  Deputy  Factory 
Inspector,  unless  disapproved  by  the  Factory  In- 


Appendix.  283 

spector,  where  machinery  is  used,  belt-shifters  or 
other  safe  mechanical  contrivances,  for  the  purpose 
of  throwing  on  or  off  belts  or  pulleys ;  and  wherever 
possible  machinery  therein  shall  be  provided  with 
loose  pulleys ;  all  vats,  pans,  saws,  planers,  cogs,  gear- 
ing, belting,  shafting,  set-screws,  and  machinery  of 
every  description  therein  shall  be  properly  guarded, 
and  no  person  shall  remove  or  make  ineffective  any 
safeguard  around  or  attached  to  any  planer,  saw,  belt- 
ing, shafting  or  other  machinery,  or  around  any  vat  or 
pan,  while  the  same  is  in  use,  unless  for  the  purpose 
of  immediately  making  repairs  thereto,  and  all  such 
safeguards  shall  be  promptly  replaced.  By  attaching 
thereto  a  notice  to  that  effect,  the  use  of  any  ma- 
chinery may  be  prohibited  by  the  Factory  Inspector, 
Assistant  Factory  Inspector,  or  by  a  Deputy  Factory 
Inspector,  unless  such  notice  is  disapproved  by  the 
Factory  Inspector,  should  such  machinery  be  regarded 
as  dangerous.  Such  notice  must  be  signed  by  the 
Inspector  who  issues  it,  and  shall  only  be  removed 
after  the  required  safeguards  are  provided,  and  the 
unsafe  or  dangerous  machine  shall  not  be  used  in  the 
mean  time.  Exhaust  fans  of  sufficient  power  shall  be 
provided  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  off  dust  from 
emery  wheels  and  grindstones,  and  dust-creating  ma- 
chinery therein.  No  person  under  eighteen  years 
of  age  and  no  woman  under  twenty-one  years  of 
age  shall  be  allowed  to  clean  machinery  while  in 
motion. 


284  Appendix. 

§  9.  A  suitable  and  proper  washroom  and  water- 
closets  shall  be  provided  in  each  manufacturing 
establishment,  and  such  water-closets  shall  be  prop- 
erly screened  and  ventilated,  and  be  kept  at  all  times 
in  a  clean  condition ;  and  if  women  or  girls  are  em- 
ployed in  any  such  establishment,  the  water-closets 
used  by  them  shall  have  separate  approaches  and 
be  separate  and  apart  from  those  used  by  men.  All 
water-closets  shall  be  kept  free  of  obscene  writing  and 
marking.  A  dressing-room  shall  be  provided  for 
women  and  girls,  when  required  by  the  Factory  In- 
spector, in  any  manufacturing  establishment  in  which 
women  and  girls  are  employed. 

§  10.  Not  less  than  sixty  minutes  shall  be  allowed 
for  the  noonday  meal  in  any  manufacturing  establish- 
ment in  this  State.  The  Factory  Inspector,  the 
Assistant  Factory  Inspector,  or  any  Deputy  Factory 
Inspector  shall  have  power  to  issue  written  permits 
in  special  cases,  allowing  shorter  meal-time  at  noon, 
and  such  permit  must  be  conspicuously  posted  in  the 
main  entrance  of  the  establishment,  and  such  permit 
may  be  revoked  at  any  time  the  Factory  Inspector 
deems  necessary,  and  shall  only  be  given  where  good 
cause  can  be  shown. 

§  ii.  The  walls  and  ceilings  of  each  workroom  in 
every  manufacturing  establishment  shall  be  lime- 
washed  or  painted,  when  in  the  opinion  of  the  Factory 
Inspector,  Assistant  Factory  Inspector,  or  of  a  Deputy 
Factory  Inspector,  unless  disapproved  of  by  the 


Appendix.  285 

Factory  Inspector,  it  shall  be  conducive  to  the  health 
or  cleanliness  of  the  persons  working  therein. 

§  12.  Any  officer  of  the  Factory  Inspection  Depart- 
ment, or  other  competent  person  designated  for  such 
purpose  by  the  Factory  Inspector,  shall  inspect  any 
building  used  as  a  workshop  or  manufacturing  estab- 
lishment or  anything  attached  thereto,  located  therein 
or  connected  therewith,  outside  of  the  cities  of  New 
York  and  Brooklyn,  which  has  been  represented  to 
be  unsafe  or  dangerous  to  life  or  limb.  If  it  appears 
pon  such  inspection  that  the  building  or  anything 
attached  thereto,  located  therein  or  connected  there- 
with is  unsafe  or  dangerous  to  life  or  limb,  the  Factory 
Inspector  shall  order  the  same  to  be  removed  or  ren- 
dered safe  and  secure ;  and  if  such  notification  be  not 
complied  with  within  a  reasonable  time,  he  shall 
prosecute  whoever  may  be  responsible  for  such 
delinquency. 

§  13.  No  room  or  rooms,  apartment  or  apartments, 
in  any  tenement  or  dwelling-house,  shall  be  used  for 
the  manufacture  of  coats,  vests,  trousers,  knee-pants, 
overalls,  cloaks,  furs,  fur-trimmings,  fur-garments, 
shirts,  purses,  feathers,  artificial  flowers,  or  cigars, 
excepting  by  the  immediate  members  of  the  family 
living  therein.  No  person,  firm,  or  corporation  shall 
hire  or  employ  any  person  to  work  in  any  one  room 
or  rooms,  apartment  or  apartments,  in  any  tenement 
or  dwelling-house,  or  building  in  the  rear  of  a  tene- 
ment or  dwelling-house,  at  making  in  whole  or  in  part 


286  Appendix. 

any  coats,  vests,  trousers,  knee-pants,  fur,  fur-trim- 
mings, fur-garments,  shirts,  purses,  feathers,  artificial 
flowers,  or  cigars,  without  first  obtaining  a  written 
permit  from  the  Factory  Inspector,  Assistant  Factory 
Inspector,  or  a  Deputy  Factory  Inspector,  which  per- 
mit may  be  revoked  at  any  time  the  health  of  the 
community  or  of  those  employed  therein  may  require 
it,  and  which  permit  shall  not  be  granted  until  an 
inspection  of  such  premises  is  made  by  the  Factory 
Inspector,  Assistant  Factory  Inspector,  or  a  Deputy 
Factory  Inspector,  and  the  maximum  number  of  per- 
sons allowed  to  be  employed  therein  shall  be  stated 
in  such  permit.  Such  permit  shall  be  framed  and 
posted  in  a  conspicuous  place  in  the  room  or  in  one 
of  the  rooms  to  which  it  relates. 

§  14.  Not  less  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  cubic 
feet  of  air  space  shall  be  allowed  for  each  person  in 
any  workroom  where  persons  are  employed  during 
the  hours  between  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  and  six 
o'clock  in  the  evening,  and  not  less  than  four  hundred 
cubic  feet  of  air  space  shall  be  provided  for  each  per- 
son in  any  workroom  where  persons  are  employed 
between  six  o'clock  in  the  evening  and  six  o'clock  in 
the  morning.  By  a  written  permit  the  Factory  In- 
spector, Assistant  Factory  Inspector,  or  a  Deputy 
Factory  Inspector,  with  the  consent  of  the  Factory 
Inspector,  may  allow  persons  to  be  employed  in  a 
room  where  there  are  less  than  four  hundred  cubic 
feet  of  air  space  for  each  person  employed  between 


Appendix.  287 

six  o'clock  in  the  evening  and  six  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  provided  such  room  is  lighted  by  electricity 
at  all  times  during  such  hours  while  persons  are  em- 
ployed therein.  There  shall  be  sufficient  means  of 
ventilation  provided  in  each  workroom  of  every  manu- 
facturing establishment ;  and  the  Factory  Inspector, 
Assistant  Factory  Inspector,  and  Deputy  Factory  In- 
spectors, under  the  direction  of  the  Factory  Inspector, 
shall  notify  the  owner,  agent,  or  lessee,  in  writing,  to 
provide,  or  cause  to  be  provided,  ample  and  proper 
means  of  ventilating  such  workroom,  and  shall  prose- 
cute such  owner,  agent,  or  lessee,  if  such  notification 
be  not  complied  with  within  twenty  days  of  the  ser- 
vice of  such  notice. 

§  15.  Upon  the  expiration  of  the  term  of  office  of 
the  present  Factory  Inspector,  and  upon  the  expira- 
tion of  the  term  of  office  of  each  of  his  successors, 
the  Governor  shall,  by  and  with  the  advice  and  con- 
sent of  the  Senate,  appoint  a  Factory  Inspector ;  and 
upon  the  expiration  of  the  term  of  office  of  the 
present  Assistant  Factory  Inspector,  and  upon  the 
expiration  of  the  term  of  office  of  each  of  his  suc- 
cessors, the  Governor  shall,  by  and  with  the  advice 
and  consent  of  the  Senate,  appoint  an  Assistant 
Factory  Inspector.  Each  Factory  Inspector  and 
Assistant  Factory  Inspector  shall  hold  over  and  con- 
tinue in  office,  after  the  expiration  of  his  term  of 
office,  until  his  successor  shall  be  appointed  and 
qualified.  The  Factory  Inspector  is  hereby  author- 


288  Appendix. 

ized  to  appoint  from  time  to  time  not  exceeding 
sixteen  persons  to  be  Deputy  Factory  Inspectors,  not 
more  than  eight  of  whom  shall  be  women ;  and  he 
shall  have  power  to  remove  the  same  at  any  time. 
The  term  of  office  of  the  Factory  Inspector  and  of 
the  Assistant  Factory  Inspector  shall  be  three  years 
each.  Annual  salaries  shall  be  paid  in  equal  monthly 
instalments,  as  follows  :  To  the  Factory  Inspector,  three 
thousand  dollars  ;  to  the  Assistant  Factory  Inspector, 
two  thousand  five  hundred  dollars ;  to  each  Deputy 
Factory  Inspector,  one  thousand  two  hundred  dollars. 
All  necessary  travelling  and  other  expenses  incurred 
by  the  Factory  Inspector,  Assistant  Factory  Inspector, 
and  the  Deputy  Factory  Inspectors  in  the  discharge 
of  their  duties  shall  be  paid  monthly  by  the  Treasurer 
upon  the  warrant  of  the  Comptroller,  issued  upon 
proper  vouchers  therefor.  A  sub-office  may  be 
opened  in  the  city  of  New  York  at  an  expense  of 
not  more  than  one  thousand  five  hundred  dollars  a 
year.  The  reasonable  necessary  travelling  and  other 
expenses  of  the  Deputy  Factory  Inspectors  while 
engaged  in  the  performance  of  their  duties  shall  be 
paid  upon  vouchers  approved  by  the  Factory  Inspector 
and  audited  by  the  Comptroller. 

§  1 6.  It  shall  be  the  duty  of  the  Factory  In- 
spector, and  the  Assistant  Factory  Inspector,  and 
of  each  of  the  Deputy  Factory  Inspectors  under 
the  supervision  and  direction  of  the  Factory  Inspector, 
to  cause  this  act  to  be  enforced,  and  to  cause  all 


Appendix.  289 

violators  of  this  act  to  be  prosecuted ;  and  for  that 
purpose  they  and  each  of  them  are  hereby  empowered 
to  visit  and  inspect  at  all  reasonable  hours,  and  as 
often  as  shall  be  practicable  and  necessary,  all  manu- 
facturing establishments  in  this  State.  It  shall  be 
unlawful  for  any  person  to  interfere  with,  obstruct,  or 
hinder,  by  force  or  otherwise,  any  officer  appointed  to 
enforce  the  provisions  of  this  act,  while  in  the  per- 
formance of  his  or  her  duties,  or  to  refuse  to  properly 
answer  questions  asked  by  such  officer  with  reference 
to  any  of  the  provisions  hereof.  The  Factory  Inspector 
may  divide  the  State  into  districts,  and  assign  one  or 
more  Deputy  Factory  Inspectors  to  each  district,  and 
transfer  them  from  one  district  to  another  as  the  best 
interests  of  the  State  may,  in  his  judgment,  require. 
Any  Deputy  Factory  Inspector  may  be  appointed  to 
act  as  Clerk  in  the  main  office  of  the  Factory  Inspector, 
which  shall  be  furnished  in  the  Capitol,  and  set  apart 
for  the  use  of  the  Factory  Inspector.  The  Assistant 
Factory  Inspector  and  Deputy  Factory  Inspectors 
shall  make  reports  to  the  Factory  Inspector  from 
time  to  time,  as  may  be  required  by  the  Factory  In- 
spector, and  the  Factory  Inspector  shall  make  an 
annual  report  to  the  Legislature  during  the  month  of 
January  of  each  year.  The  Factory  Inspector,  As- 
sistant Factory  Inspector,  and  each  Deputy  Factory 
Inspector  shall  have  the  same  powers  as  a  Notary 
Public  to  administer  oaths  and  take  affidavits  in  mat- 
ters connected  with  the  enforcement  of  the  provisions 
of  this  act. 


2  go  Appendix. 

§  1 7.  The  District  Attorney  of  any  county  of  this 
State  is  hereby  authorized,  upon  the  request  of  the 
Factory  Inspector,  Assistant  Factory  Inspector,  or  of 
a  Deputy  Factory  Inspector,  or  of  any  other  person 
of  full  age,  to  commence  and  prosecute  to  termina- 
tion before  any  Recorder,  Police  Justice,  or  court  of 
record,  in  the  name  of  the  people  of  the  State,  actions 
or  proceedings  against  any  person  or  persons  reported 
to  him  to  have  violated  the  provisions  of  this  act. 

§  1 8.  The  words  "  manufacturing  establishment," 
wherever  used  in  this  act,  shall  be  construed  to  mean 
any  mill,  factory,  or  workshop,  where  one  or  more 
persons  are  employed  at  labor. 

§  19.  A  copy  of  this  act  shall  be  conspicuously 
posted  and  kept  posted  in  each  workroom  of  every 
manufacturing  establishment  in  this  State. 

§  20.  Any  person  who  violates  or  omits  to  comply 
with  any  of  the  provisions  of  this  act,  or  who  suffers 
or  permits  any  child  to  be  employed  in  violation  of  its 
provisions,  shall  be  deemed  guilty  of  a  misdemeanor, 
and  on  conviction  shall  be  punished  by  a  fine  of  not 
less  than  twenty  nor  more  than  fifty  dollars  for  the 
first  offence,  and  not  more  than  one  hundred  dollars 
for  the  second  offence,  or  imprisonment  for  not  more 
than  ten  days,  and  for  the  third  offence  a  fine  of  not 
less  than  two  hundred  and  fifty  dollars,  and  not  more 
than  thirty  days'  imprisonment. 

§  21.  All  acts  and  parts  of  acts  inconsistent  with 
the  provisions  of  this  act  are  hereby  repealed. 

§  22.  This  act  shall  take  effect  immediately. 


AUTHORITIES  CONSULTED   IN   PREPARING 
THIS   BOOK. 


United  States  Census,  from  1790  to  1880  inclusive. 
Reports  of   the    State  Bureaus   of    Labor   Statistics   as 
follows :  — 

Maine,  1889. 

Massachusetts,  1870  to  1889  inclusive. 

Connecticut,  1881. 

Rhode  Island,  1889. 

New  York,  1885. 

New  Jersey,  1885,  1886,  and  1889. 

Iowa,  1 887  and  1889. 

Kansas,  1889. 

Wisconsin,  1883-84  and  1887. 

Colorado,  1889. 

Minnesota,  1889. 

California,  1888. 

Nebraska,  1887-90. 

Michigan,  1892. 

Reports  of  the  Factory  Inspectors  for  various  States. 
Working  Women  in  Large  Cities :  Report  of  the  United 
States  Department  of  Labor,  Washington,  D.  C,  1889. 
The  Labor  Movement  in  America.     By  Richard  T.  Ely. 

Thomas  Y.  Crowell  &  Co.,  New  York. 
The  Wages  Question:    A  Treatise  on  Wages  and   the 
Wages  Class.     By  Francis  A.  Walker.     Henry  Holt 
&  Co.,  New  York. 


292  Authorities. 

The  Labor  Problem.     Edited  by  W.  E.  Barnes.     Harper 

&  Brothers,  New  York. 
On  Labor.      By  W.  T.  Thornton.      Macmillan  &  Co., 

London,  1869. 
Profit-Sharing  between  Employer  and  Employed.     By  N. 

P.  Gilman.     Houghton,  Mifflin,  &  Co.,  Boston. 
Sharing  the  Profits.     By  Mary  Whiton  Calkins,     A.  M. 

Ginn  &  Co.,  Boston. 

Artisans  and  Machinery.     By  P.  Cask  ell.     London,  1836. 
Condition  of  the  Laboring  Classes  in  England.     By  F. 

Engel.     Leipzig  and  New  York. 
Ansichten    der    Volkswirthschaft   aus     dem    geschicht. 

Standpunkte.     By  Wilhelm  Roscher. 
Various  Reports  of  Commissioners  appointed  to  inquire 

into  the  working  of  the  Factory  Acts  in  England. " 
Le  Travail  des  Femmes  au  XIX.  Siecle.    By  Paul  Leroy- 

Beaulieu.     Paris,  1870. 

London  Labor  and  the  London  Poor.     By  Henry  May- 
hew.     Charles  Griffen  &  Co.,  London. 
The  Industrial  Revolution.  By  Arnold  Toynbee.  London. 
The  Philosophy  of  Wealth.     By  John  B.  Clark.      Ginn 

&  Co.,  Boston. 

Economic  Writings  of  Emil  de  Lavelaye. 
Lalor's  Cyclopedia  of  Political  Science. 
Various  Treatises  on  Political  Economy.     Adam  Smith, 

John     Stuart    Mill,     Senior,    Cairnes,     Ely,     Perry, 

Walker,  etc. 
Prisoners  of  Poverty.      By  Helen  Campbell.     Roberts 

Bros.,  Boston. 

Applied  Christianity.     By  Washington  Gladden.  Hough- 
ton,  Mifflin,  &  Co.,  Boston. 
Life  and  Work  of  the   Earl  of   Shaftesbury,   London. 

Read  for  Factory  Inspection  and  Legislation. 


Authorities. 


293 


Problems  of  To-Day.    By  Richard  T.  Ely.    T.  Y.  Crowell 

&  Co.,  New  York. 
Social  Studies.    By  the  Rev.  R.  Heber  Newton.      G.  P. 

Putnam's  Son,  New  York. 
Social  Problems.    By  Henry  George. 
Studies  in  Modern  Socialism.     By  Edwin  Brown,  D.D. 

Appleton  &  Co.,  New  York. 
Dynamic  Sociology.     By  Lester  F.  Ward.     D.  Appleton 

&  Co.,  New  York. 
Labor  and  Life  of  the  People.    Vols.  I  &  2 :  East  London. 

By  Charles  Booth.      Williams  &   Norgate,  London, 

1889  &  1892. 
Thirty  Years  of  Labor:   1859  to  l889-      B7  T-  v-  Pow' 

derly. 

Das  Kapital.    By  Karl  Marx. 
How  the    Other    Half   Live.     By  Jacob   Riis.     Charles 

Scribner's  Sons,  New  York. 
General  Reports  and  Review  Articles  on  the  questions 

involved. 


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303 


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INDEX. 


ABUSES,  in  factories,  112;  in  dry- 
goods  stores,  365.  (See  also 
Fines,  Factories,  Hours.) 

Age,  average,  of  working-women 
in  Massachusetts,  116. 

Agricultural  labor,  women  press 
into,  21. 

Agricultural  Laborers'  Union, 
women  denied  admission  to,  21. 

Alabama,  women  workers  in,  no. 

Alfred's  "  History  of  the  Factory 
Movement,"  93. 

American  girls,  percentage  of, 
employed  in  Massachusetts,  116. 

Andover  ordinances,  60. 

Appendix,  275. 

Apprentices,  49,  122. 

Arbitration,  266. 

Aristotle,  "  Politics  "  and  "  Econo- 
mics," 29  ;  views  of  women,  30. 

Arizona,  working-women  in,  no. 

Arkansas,  working-women  in,  no. 

Atlanta,    Ga.,     weekly    wage  in, 

139- 

Austria,  hours  of  labor  in,  185. 
Authorities  consulted,  291. 

BAKERIES,  girls  in,  218. 
Baltimore,  Md.,  weekly  wage  in, 

139- 

Beating,  52. 
Beaulieu,  Paul  Leroy,   165,   167, 

251. 


Belgium,  inquiry  commission, 
174  ;  hours  of  labor  in,  186. 

Berlin  Labor  Conference,  n. 

Betton,  Frank,  investigation  of 
conditions  in  Kansas,  123. 

Bibliography,  294. 

Bishop,  Commissioner,  221. 

"  Bitter  Cry  of  Outcast  London," 

9>  !36- 
Blackwell,  Dr.  Emily,  on  restraints 

on  women  workers,  97. 
Book-binding,  women  and  children 

employed  in,  108. 
Boston,     weekly    wage     in,    139; 

establishment  of  labor  bureau  in, 

in  ;  report  on  working-girls  of, 

114;  women  employed  in,  116. 
Brain,   relative  sizes  and   weights 

of  man's  and  woman's,  27. 
Brassey,  Lord,  176. 
Broadcloth,  weaving  of,  by  women, 

73- 
Brooklyn,  N.  Y.,  weekly  wage  in, 

139- 

Bucher,  Dr.  Carl,  43. 
Buffalo,  N.  Y.,  weekly  wage  in, 

139. 


CALIFORNIA,  average  wage  in, 
141;  women  workers  in,  no; 
first  labor-bureau  report,  121. 

Calkins,  Mary  W.,  on  profit-shar- 
ing, 267. 


306 


Index. 


Capital  has  no  complaint,  7,  n. 
Capitalist,    and    landlord    absorb 

lion's   share,  7 ;    investment   of 

skill  and  risk,  12. 
Carpet-weaving,  women  employed 

in,  108. 
Celibacy,  43. 
Census     Bureau,     difficulties     in 

work  of,   102;   discrepancies  in 

reports,  103. 

Charity  adds  insult  to  injury,  251. 
Charlemagne,  45. 
Charleston,    S.  C.,   weekly  wage 

in,  139. 

Chicago,  weekly  wage  in,  139. 
Child  labor,  efforts  against,  1 1 ;  in 

Prussia,  175,  178. 
Chivalry,  44. 
Cigar-making,  women  and  children 

employed  in,  108. 
Cincinnati,  weekly  wage  in,  139. 
Cities,  women's  trades  focussed  in, 

19. 
Clement  of  Alexandria,  on  women, 

41. 
Cleveland,    O.,  weekly  wage    in, 

139- 

Clothing-trade,  women  employed 
in,  108. 

Colbert,  54. 

Colorado,  women  workers  in,  no; 
labor-bureau  reports,  122;  weekly 
wage  in,  141. 

Commodity,  labor  as  a,  17. 

Competition,  among  needle-work- 
ers, 22;  should  be  controlled, 
252,  253. 

Conciliation,  arbitration  and,  266. 

Conditions,  general,  in  Maine, 
189;  Massachusetts,  190;  Con- 
necticut, 192 ;  Rhode  Island, 
193;  New  Jersey,  197;  Kansas, 
199 ;  Wisconsin,  199  ;  Colorado, 


200;  Indiana,  200;  Minnesota, 
201 ;  California,  202  ;  Missouri, 
204 ;  Michigan,  205  ;  in  New 
York  stores,  232. 

Congres  Feministe,  165. 

Connecticut,  women  workers  in, 
no;  labor  bureau  organized, 
121 ;  average  wage,  141. 

Cotton,  first  bale  of,  67 ;  industry, 
68;  in  Italy,  179;  machinery 
and  mills,  70,  71. 

Cotton-goods  trade,  women  in,  108. 

Coxe,  Tench,  68,  72,  115. 

Credit,  54. 

Crime  and  pauperism  in  labor 
reports,  113. 

Criminal  list  fed  by  factory  sys- 
tem, 91. 

Custom  hampers  women  workers, 
22. 

Cyprian,  41, 


DAKOTA,  working-women  in,  no. 

Daniel,  Dr.  Annie  S.,  223,  225, 
226. 

Deaconesses,  39. 

De  Gournay,  54. 

Delaware,  women  workers  in,  no. 

Diet,  effect  on  industrial  efficiency, 
14, 

Distribution  of  wealth,  conflict 
over,  7,  8. 

District  of  Columbia,  working- 
women  in,  1 10. 

Divorces  in  Massachusetts  labor 
reports,  114. 

Domestic  service,  57,  237 ;  in 
California,  122  ;  in  Colorado, 
122  ;  advantages  of,  239  ;  disad- 
vantages, 241  ;  employers  of, 
245 ;  Woman's  Congress  on,  246. 

Donaldson,  Principal,  39. 


Index. 


307 


Dress-making,  254. 

Drimakos,  34. 

Dry-goods  houses,  abuses  in,  265. 

Dust  in  modern  manufacture,  213, 

218,  219. 
Dynamic  Sociology,  26. 


EARNINGS,  definition  of,  127 ; 
average  of  working-women  in 
Massachusetts,  117. 

Economic  question,  the  question 
of  the  day,  7  ;  dependence,  27  ; 
Greek  thought,  29. 

Education,  technical,  as  affecting 
efficiency,  14  ;  of  girls  less  prac- 
tical than  of  boys,  22  ;  industrial, 
in  Italy,  175  ;  in  Sweden,  183; 
compulsory,  178  ;  demanded  for 
the  employer  and  the  public, 
251. 

Efficiency,  differences  in,  regulate 
wages,  14;  affected  by  educa- 
tion, 14. 

Embroidery,  48. 

Emerson,  Mary  Moody,  66. 

Emigration,  Irish,  84  ;  increase  of, 
96. 

Employment,  fluctuation  in,  affects 
wages,  16. 

Encyclical  of  Pope  Leo  XIII. , 
151. 

Engels,  Dr.,  on  proportion  of  sub- 
sistence to  total  expenses,  118. 

Evils  recognized,  94. 

Evolution,  woman's  industrial 
activity  in  harmony  with,  270. 

Expenses,  average  of  working- 
women  in  Massachusetts,  118. 


FACTORY,  system,  75,  90;  girls, 
78;  Lowell  girls,  79;  laws,  81, 


85,  235,  275 ;  conditions,  82, 
84 ;  hours,  86  ;  women  in,  89 ; 
employments,  effects  of,  91  ;  ven- 
tilation, 92;  inspection,  222, 
275  ;  married  women  in,  229; 
movement,  92,  93. 

Fair  house,  standard  of,  262. 

Families,  condition  of,  113. 

Family  life,  demoralization  of, 
271. 

Fawcett,  Henry,  opposition  to 
women  in  trades,  20. 

Fines,  system  of,  230,  233 ;  in 
stores,  258. 

Florida,  women  workers  in,  no. 

Fortescue,  53. 

France,  hours  of  labor  in,  183. 

Fry,  Eleanor,  63. 

Fuller,  Margaret,  119. 

Furriers,  46. 

GEORGIA,  women  workers  in,  no. 

Germany,  attitude  of  Emperor 
William,  u  ;  hours  of  labor  in, 
185. 

"  Germinal,"  174. 

Gilman,  N.  P.,  on  profit-sharing, 
267. 

Gloves,  home  manufacture  of,  63. 

Godfrey's  Cordial  in  infant  mor- 
tality, 147. 

Greeley,  Horace,  119. 

Guilds,  45  ;  expulsion  of  women 
from,  47. 

HABITS,    personal,    as    affecting 

efficiency,  14. 
Half-time    system    for     children, 

"3- 

Harkness,  Margaret,  154. 

Harland,  Sarah,  on  work  for  un- 
educated women,  253. 


308 


Index. 


Harrison,  Frederick,  17,  18. 
Health,  in  factory  employments, 

91 ;  of  working- women  in  Massa- 
chusetts, 113. 
Homes,   of  working-people,   112 ; 

for  girls,  191  ;  in  cities,  222,  226, 

250. 
Hosiery     and     knitting,    women 

employed  in,  108. 
Hours  of  labor,  in  Massachusetts, 

117  ;  in  Michigan,  206  ;  in  stores, 

258. 
Huxley,    Thomas,   description  of 

London  parish,  9,  10. 


IDAHO,  working-women  in,  no. 
Ideals,   alteration   of,    called  for, 

271. 

Illinois,  women  workers  in,  no. 
Immobility  of  labor,  18,  19. 
Income,  defined,  127;  average,  in 

Massachusetts,  116, 
Indiana,  women  workers  in,  no. 
Indianapolis,     average    wage    in, 

139- 

Individual  development,  272. 
Industrial,    education,    252 ;    effi- 
ciency, 14- 
Industries  open  to  women  in  the 

United  States,  124. 
Infant  mortality,  147. 
Insanity  among  workers,  254. 
Intellectual  degeneracy  of  factory 

operatives,  91,  93. 
Intelligence,   effect  on  efficiency, 

14;    effect    of    factory  system 

on,  91. 
Intemperance  produced  by  factory 

system,  91. 
Iowa,  women    workers    in,    no; 

labor  bureau,  122. 
"  Iphigenia  in  Tauris,"  31. 


Irish,  emigration,  84 ;  industries, 

159. 
Iron  law    of  wages,   defined  and 

denounced,     15  ;    applicable  to 

unskilled  labor,  15. 


JEVONS,  W,  S.,  147. 
Justice,  education  in,  271 ;  a  soul- 
growth,  273,  274. 


KANSAS,  women  workers  in,  no; 

labor  bureau,  122  ;  average  wage 

in,  89. 

Kay,  Dr.,  89. 
Kelley,  Florence,  264. 
Kettle,    Rupert,    on     arbitration, 

268. 
Knights  of  Labor,   on    women's 

work,  270. 
Knitting,  74  ;  and  hosiery  trades, 

women  in,  108. 


LABOR,  degradation  of,  35 ; 
unskilled  in  colonies,  58  ;  child, 
86  ;  effect  of  out-door,  on  preg- 
nant mothers,  147  ;  unskilled,  a 
cause  of  low  wages,  271 ;  bureaus, 
their  work  in  relation  to  women, 
1 10  (see  also  under  each 
State);  Father  of,  115  ;  mobility 
of,  17;  Congress  in  Belgium, 
175  ;  hours  of,  in  Germany,  185, 
in  France,  183,  in  Austria,  185, 
in  Belgium,  186,  in  Switzerland, 
186. 

Laborer  does  not  receive  his 
share,  13. 

Lace-making,  women  employed  in, 
48,  1 08 ;  in  Ireland,  159  ;  in 
Nottingham,  268. 


Index. 


309 


Lecky,  W.  H.,  89. 
Leroy-Beaulieu,   Paul,    165,    167, 

251. 

Levasseur,  E.,  161. 
Lille,  cave-dwellers  in,  168. 
"  London,  Bitter  Cry  of  Outcast," 

9,  196;  poverty,  9,  10. 
Louis  le  Jeune,  46. 
Louis,   Saint,   "  Institutions "    of, 

46. 
Louisiana,    women    workers     in, 

no. 
Louisville,  Ky.,  weekly  wage  in, 

139- 

Love,  law  of,  ends  conflict,  274. 
Lowell  factory-girl,  93. 
Lowell,  Josephine  Shaw,  267. 
Luther,  44. 

Lynn,  Mass.,  shoe-making  indus- 
try of,  99. 


MACHINERY,  effects  on  woman's 
labor,  252. 

Maine,  Sir  Henry,  42. 

Maine,  women  employed  in,  no; 
in  shoe-making,  99  ;  labor 
bureau ,  123 ;  average  wages, 

139. 
Manual  training,  in  California,  122. 

(See  also  education.) 
Marriage,  27,  38. 
Married   women  in  factories,  91, 

118. 
Massachusetts,   Bureau  of  Labor 

reports,  99,  101,  in  ;  census  of 

women   workers   in,    110,    116; 

average  wages  in,  139. 
Match-making  dangers,  221. 
Mazzini  on  freedom,  273. 
Men  oppose  admission  of  women 

to  trades,  20. 


Men's    furnishing-goods,    women 

employed  in,  108. 
Michigan,    women     workers     in, 

110. 
Millinery,    women    employed    in, 

1 08  ;    readily    organized    trade, 

254. 

Mines,  women  in,  174. 
Minnesota,   women   employed  in, 

no  ;  labor  bureau,  122  ;  average 

wage,  141. 
Mississippi,    working-women    in, 

no. 

Missouri,  women  workers  in,  no. 
Mobility  of  labor,  17. 
Modern    processes    involve    risk, 

115. 

Montana,  working-women  in,  no. 
Mundella,  Arthur,  on  arbitration, 

268. 


NEBRASKA,    working-women    in, 

no. 
Needle,     resource     of     unskilled 

woman  laborers,  22. 
Nevada,  women  workers  in,  no. 
Newark,  average  wage  in,  139. 
New  England,  shoe  operatives  in, 

100. 

New  Hampshire,  women  in  shoe- 
making  industry  in,   99 ;  total 

women  workers,  110. 
New  Jersey,  factory  evils  in,  94; 

women  workers  employed,  no  ; 

average  wage,  141. 
New  Mexico,  working-women  in, 

no. 
New   Orleans,   average  wages  in, 

139- 

New  York,  Labor  Bureau  reports, 
94,  119  ;  factory  evils,  94;  total 


3io 


Index. 


women  workers  in  State,  no ; 
a\erage  wage  in,  141. 

New  York  City,  average  wage  in, 
139  ;  percentage  of  women 
workers  in,  109  ;  "  Tribune " 
stirs  in  sewing-women's  behalf, 
119. 

North  Carolina,  total  women  em- 
ployed in,  no. 

Nott,  Mrs.,  66. 

Nottingham  lace  manufacture, 
268. 


OFFICES,  intelligence,  247. 
Ohio,  women  employed  in,  no. 
Oregon,  working-women  in,  no. 
Organization    among    women,    in 

France,  166;  in  cities,  206;  in 

England,  253,  255. 


PARENT-DUCHALET,  171. 

Pauerism  and  crime  in  labor  re- 
ports, 113. 

Pay,  just,  the  first  remedy,  25  ; 
equal  for  both  sexes,  257. 

Peck,  Charles  F.,  work  in  New 
York,  119. 

Pennsylvania,  working-women  in, 
no. 

Perkins,  Mrs.  Thomas,  65. 

Philadelphia,  average  weekly  wage 
in,  139. 

Plato,  35. 

Post-office,  employment  of  women 
in,  objected  to,  21. 

Potter,  Beatrice,  154. 

Poverty,  no  more  desperate  in 
Europe  than  in  the  United 
States, 9,  in  London,  9,10;  pro- 
duced by  factory  system,  91. 


Prejudice,  born  of  ignorance,  etc., 

to  be  dismissed,  13. 
Profit-sharing    between   employer 

and  employed,  267. 
Prostitution,  fed  by  factory  system, 

91,    92 ;    by    domestic    service, 

93;    statistics     in,     171,     210; 

recruited  from  factories,  114. 
Providence,  average  weekly  wage 

in,  139. 

QUESNAY,  54. 

Question  of  the  day,  the  economic 

one,  7. 
Questions,   three,  to  be  answered 


RANKE,  on  air  required,  92. 
Remedies,  just  pay  the  first,  251. 
Reports,   labor,   six    divisions  of, 

115.    (See    also    under    various 

States.) 
Reybaud's  "  History  of  the  Factory 

Movement,"  92. 
Rhode  Island,  working-women  in, 

1 10  ;  average  wage  in,  141. 
Rice,  Commissioner,  deals  with 

women  wage-earners  in  Colorado 

report,  122,  123. 
Richmond,    Va.,  average    weekly 

wage  in,  139. 
Robinson,    Henry    A.,    Michigan 

Labor  Bureau  work,  123. 
Robinson,  Mrs.  H.  H.,  79. 
Rogers,  Thorold,  55  ;  value  of  his 

work,  15,  1 6. 


SALESWOMEN,  131. 
San  Francisco,     average     weekly 
wage  in,  139. 


Index. 


Sanitary    conditions    of    factories 

and  of  operatives'  homes,  92. 
San  Jos6,  average  weekly  wage  in, 

139- 
Savannah,   average    weekly    wage 

in,  139. 

Savings   of    Massachusetts  work- 
ing-women, 1 1 8. 
Seamstresses,    in  Paris,    163 ;  in 

New  York,  163. 
Seats  in  shops,  220. 
Sewing-women,  feeling  stirred  in 

behalf  of,  119. 
Sex,  disability  of,  in  the  way  of 

mobility  of  labor,  18 
"Sharing  the   Profits,"  by  Mary 

W.  Calkins,  267. 
Shearman,   T.  G.,  on  irregularity. 

of    conditions    in     the    United 

States,  8. 

Shirt-making,  women  in,  108. 
Shoe-making,  women  in,  98,  99. 
Silk-growing,  64,  65. 
Silk  industry,  women  and  children 

in,  95,  108. 
Silk     manufactory,    women    and 

children  in,  in  Italy,  179. 
Simon,  Jules,  163. 
Single  and  married,  proportion  of, 

among  working-women,  118. 
Smith,  Adam,     54 ;    summary    of 

causes  for  difference  in  wages, 

16. 

Social  life  of  working-people,  114. 
Society,  women  workers   frowned 

on  by,  97. 

Solidarity  of  humanity,  274. 
Soul-moulding,  Mazzini  on,  273. 
South  Carolina,  working-women  in, 

no. 

Spinning-classes,  60;  patriotic,  63. 

Statistics   inadequate  as  to  early 

conditions,  75. 


Stevens,     Dr.,     on    increase    of 

insanity,  254. 
Stores,   condition  of  women    and 

children  in,  258. 
St.  Louis,  average  weekly  wage  in, 

139- 
St.  Paul,  average  weekly  wage  in, 

139- 

Straw-braiding  in  New  England, 
68,  100,  101;  straw-goods  trade, 
women  in,  108. 

Sully,  53. 

Supply  and  demand,  23. 

Sweating-system,  150,  235  ;  parlia- 
mentary investigation  of,  end  of 
report  on,  153. 

TACITUS,  38. 

Technical  education,  as  affecting 

efficiency,  14. 

Tenement-house  manufacture,  256. 
Tennessee,  working-women  in,  1 10. 
Tertullian,  40. 

Texas,  working-women  in,  no. 
Textile  industries,  women  in,  98. 
Thucydides,  opinion  of,  32. 
Tobacco  trade,  women  in,  no. 
Trades,  admission   of  women   to, 

barred    by    men,     20 ;    women 

employed  in,  108. 
Tramp  question,  in  labor  reports, 

"3- 
Trusts,  alarm  caused  by  growth  of, 

n. 

Turgot,  54. 

Tutelage,  perpetual,  of  women,  36. 


UMBRELLAS  and  canes,  women 
employed  in,  108. 

Unemployed,  condition  of,  113. 

Union,  Working-Women's  Pro- 
tective, 230. 


312 


Index. 


United  States,  Labor  Bureau 
Reports  on  working  -  women, 
124. 

Unskilled  labor,  in  majority,  22  ; 
fierce  competition  in,  22 ;  sur- 
plus of,  following  Civil  War, 
101. 

Utah,  working-women  in,  no. 


VACATIONS  of  working-women  in 
Massachusetts,  117. 

Value  of  laborer's  service  to 
employer,  elements  of,  14. 

Vapors,  dangers  of,  in  manufacture, 
214. 

Vegetables,  cultivation  of,  by  wo- 
men, 263. 

Vermont,  working-women  in,  no. 

Vincent,  Madame,  165. 

Villerme,  169,  176. 


WAGE  rates,  present,  in  United 
States,  126. 

Wages,  why  men  receive  more 
than  women,  14,  21  ;  effect  of 
industrial  efficiency  on,  14  ;  iron 
law  of ,  1 5  ;  effort  to  make  stand- 
ard of  life  conform  to,  15  ; 
tendency  to  a  minimum,  16; 
Adam  Smith  for  causes  of  dif- 
ference in,  16;  in  stores,  259; 
final  effect  of  woman's  work  on, 
270  ;  not  fixed,  35  ;  field,  58  ; 
eighteenth-century,  62  ;  in 
France,  161  ,  in  Russia,  181  ; 
New  York,  129;  decrease  in, 
226  ;  in  clothing,  130 ;  in  Con- 
necticut, 133;  in  Italy,  181;  in 
California,  134;  Colorado,  135; 
Iowa,  136;  Kansas,  136;  Maine, 
134;  Minnesota,  135  ;  Michigan, 


138  ;  Rhode  Island,  134  ;  aver- 
age, per  State,  141  ;  average, 
for  all  cities,  141;  average,  by 
cities,  139;  definition  of,  127. 

Wages  question  the  question  of 
the  day,  7. 

Wales,  women  in  industries  in, 
160. 

Walker,  Gen.  F.  A.,  on  differences 
in  efficiency,  14  ;  difficulties  of 
census  enumeration,  104. 

Ward,  Lester  F.,  26. 

Wealth,  ratio  of  increase  greater 
than  that  of  population,  8; 
greater  aggregation  of,  in  the 
United  States  than  in  Great 
Britain,  9. 

Weavers  of  Baltimore,  81. 

Weaving,  colonial,  60. 

West  Virginia,  working-women  in, 
no, 

Widows,  proportion  of,  among 
other  workers,  118. 

Windows,  nailing  down  of,  62. 

Wisconsin,  average  wage  in,  141 ; 
working-women  in,  no. 

Wives'  earnings,  1 13. 

Woman,  primeval,  27  ;  Roman, 
36  ;  property  of ,  52  ;  petition  of,  in 
France,  55  ;  International  Coun- 
cil of,  79. 

Women-workers,  percentage  of,  in 
Philadelphia,  Pittsburg,  New 
York,  Lowell,  Manchester,  Wil- 
mington, Del.,  108,  109;  accord- 
ing to  States,  no;  of  Boston, 
114,  116;  industries  open  to,  in 
large  cities,  124  ;  development 
of  her  intelligence  necessary, 
251;  in  German  mines,  n; 
why  their  wages  are  less  than 
men's,  14 ;  their  trades  highly 
localized,  19;  entrance  into 


Index. 


313 


trades  barred  by  men,  20 ; 
increase  of,  in  the  United  States, 
98;  total  numbers  of,  in  the 
United  States,  in  1860,  103,  in 
1870,  105,  in  1880,  105  ;  occu- 
pations according  to  Census  of 
1880,106. 

Woollen  and  cotton  industries,  98, 
108. 

Working-girls'  clubs,  conditions 
of,  257. 


Working-Woman's  Journal,  255. 
Working  -  Women's       Protective 

Union,  255. 
Working-Women's      Society      of 

New  York,  its  aims,  256. 
Worsted     and     woollen     trades, 

women  and  children  in,  108. 
Wright,  Carroll  D.,  115. 
Wyoming,    working  -  women    in, 

no. 


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